Diegten
Encyclopedia
Diegten is a municipality
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the district of Waldenburg
Waldenburg (district)
Waldenburg District is one of the five districts of the largely German-speaking canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. The district lies to the south of Basel-Country, bordering the canton of Solothurn. Its capital is the town of Waldenburg. It has a population of . In average 150 persons live in...

 in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Basel-Country
Basel-Country
Basel-Landschaft , is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland. The capital is Liestal...

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

History

Diegten is first mentioned in 1152 as Dietingoven. In 1213 it was mentioned as Dietikon,in 1342 it was mentioned as Dietken and in 1671 it was Dieckten.

Geography

Diegten has an area, , of 9.64 square kilometres (3.7 sq mi). Of this area, 4.77 km² (1.8 sq mi) or 49.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 3.81 km² (1.5 sq mi) or 39.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.07 km² (0.413129309694012 sq mi) or 11.1% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.5%. Out of the forested land, 37.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 25.5% is used for growing crops and 19.1% is pastures, while 4.9% is used for orchards or vine crops.

The municipality is located in the Waldenburg district, in the Diegter valley. It consists of a 2 km (1.2 mi) long string of five linear village
Linear village
In geography, a linear village, or linear settlement, is a small to medium-sized settlement that is formed around a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Wraysbury, a village in Berkshire, is one of the longest villages in England....

s; Ober-Diegten, Mühle-Diegten, Mittel-Diegten, Schloss-Diegten and Nieder-Diegten.

Coat of arms

The blazon
Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...

 of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is Per pale, Or a Lion rampant Sable, and Bendy of six Sable and Argent.

Demographics

Diegten has a population of . , 7.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 13.7%.

Most of the population speaks German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 (1,338 or 96.3%), with French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 being second most common (9 or 0.6%) and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 being third (9 or 0.6%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. The population was made up of 1,425 Swiss citizens (90.4% of the population), and 152 non-Swiss residents (9.6%) Of the population in the municipality 418 or about 30.1% were born in Diegten and lived there in 2000. There were 451 or 32.4% who were born in the same canton, while 378 or 27.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 108 or 7.8% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 11 live births to Swiss citizens and 5 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 10 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 1 while the foreign population increased by 4. There was 1 Swiss man who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 3 non-Swiss men and 8 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 2 and the non-Swiss population increased by 8 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.4%.

The age distribution, , in Diegten is; 108 children or 6.8% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 307 teenagers or 19.5% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 156 people or 9.9% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 213 people or 13.5% are between 30 and 39, 303 people or 19.2% are between 40 and 49, and 302 people or 19.2% are between 50 and 64. The senior population distribution is 145 people or 9.2% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 43 people or 2.7% who are over 80.

, there were 586 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 681 married individuals, 62 widows or widowers and 61 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.56 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.56 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 67.6% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...

 or a rent-to-own agreement).

, there were 510 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 113 households that consist of only one person and 53 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 518 households that answered this question, 21.8% were households made up of just one person and 4 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 163 married couples without children, 205 married couples with children There were 20 single parents with a child or children. There were 5 households that were made up unrelated people and 8 households that were made some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 275 single family homes (or 67.6% of the total) out of a total of 407 inhabited buildings. There were 48 multi-family buildings (11.8%), along with 70 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (17.2%) and 14 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (3.4%). Of the single family homes 22 were built before 1919, while 87 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (68) were built between 1981 and 1990.

there were 540 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 170. There were 12 single room apartments and 271 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 490 apartments (90.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 36 apartments (6.7%) were seasonally occupied and 14 apartments (2.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 9.6 new units per 1000 residents. the average price to rent a two room apartment was about 738.00 CHF (US$590, £330, €470), a three room apartment was about 1070.00 CHF (US$860, £480, €680) and a four room apartment cost an average of 1274.00 CHF (US$1020, £570, €820). The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.41%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Politics

In the 2007 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...

 the most popular party was the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 44.67% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (18.57%), the Green Party
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (14.13%) and the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....

 (14.01%). In the federal election, a total of 520 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 was 48.1%.

Economy

, Diegten had an unemployment rate of 2.7%. , there were 108 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 32 businesses involved in this sector. 81 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 18 businesses in this sector. 206 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 34 businesses in this sector. There were 754 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.0% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...

 jobs was 286. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 74, of which 69 were in agriculture and 5 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 73 of which 48 or (65.8%) were in manufacturing and 25 (34.2%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 139. In the tertiary sector; 21 or 15.1% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 9.4% were in the movement and storage of goods, 14 or 10.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.4% were in the information industry, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 6 or 4.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 37 or 26.6% were in education and 32 or 23.0% were in health care.

, there were 149 workers who commuted into the municipality and 540 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 17.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 57% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 228 or 16.4% were Roman Catholic, while 898 or 64.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
Swiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 6 members of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...

 (or about 0.43% of the population), there were 4 individuals (or about 0.29% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...

, and there were 67 individuals (or about 4.82% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 individuals (or about 0.36% of the population) who were Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 20 (or about 1.44% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. There was 1 person who was Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, 2 individuals who were Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 131 (or about 9.42% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....

 or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, and 26 individuals (or about 1.87% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Diegten about 594 or (42.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 128 or (9.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

). Of the 128 who completed tertiary schooling, 71.9% were Swiss men, 21.9% were Swiss women and 4.7% were non-Swiss men.

, there were 91 students in Diegten who came from another municipality, while 101 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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