Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus
Encyclopedia
Feldbrunnen-St.Niklaus 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 Lebern
Lebern (district)
Lebern District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, situated to the west of the canton. Together with the city of Solothurn, it forms the Amtei of Solothurn-Lebern...

 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 Solothurn 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....

.

Geography

Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus has an area, , of 2.5 square kilometre (0.965255396481338 sq mi). Of this area, 0.92 km² (0.355213985905132 sq mi) or 36.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.15 km² (0.444017482381415 sq mi) or 46.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.37 km² (0.142857798679238 sq mi) or 14.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.05 km² (12.4 acre) or 2.0% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.0%. Out of the forested land, 44.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 26.0% is used for growing crops and 10.4% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Lebern district, in the soouthern foothills of the Jura Mountains
Jura mountains
The Jura Mountains are a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each...

, east of Solothurn
Solothurn
The city of Solothurn is the capital of the Canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. The city also comprises the only municipality of the district of the same name.-Pre-roman settlement:...

.

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 Vert a Fontain natural Argent and in a Chief Azure a castle Argent roofed Gules.

Demographics

Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus has a population of . , 7.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 18.6%.

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....

 (728 or 96.3%), with Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 being second most common (8 or 1.1%) 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 (6 or 0.8%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 48.6% male and 51.4% female. The population was made up of 420 Swiss men (45.5% of the population) and 29 (3.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 441 Swiss women (47.8%) and 33 (3.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 124 or about 16.4% were born in Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus and lived there in 2000. There were 322 or 42.6% who were born in the same canton, while 231 or 30.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 65 or 8.6% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 7 live births to Swiss citizens and were 6 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. There was 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there was 1 non-Swiss man and 1 non-Swiss woman who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 28 and the non-Swiss population increased by 5 people. This represents a population growth rate of 3.7%.

, there were 252 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 407 married individuals, 64 widows or widowers and 33 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.46 which is less people per room than 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 59.3% 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 340 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 109 households that consist of only one person and 18 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 344 households that answered this question, 31.7% were households made up of just one person and there were 1 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 123 married couples without children, 86 married couples with children There were 12 single parents with a child or children. There were 9 households that were made up of unrelated people and 4 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 129 single family homes (or 65.5% of the total) out of a total of 197 inhabited buildings. There were 47 multi-family buildings (23.9%), along with 16 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (8.1%) and 5 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.5%). Of the single family homes 8 were built before 1919, while 26 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (33) were built between 1971 and 1980.

there were 379 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 112. There were 6 single room apartments and 173 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 337 apartments (88.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 30 apartments (7.9%) were seasonally occupied and 12 apartments (3.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.92%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

Waldegg Castle
Waldegg Castle
Waldegg Castle is a castle in the municipality of Feldbrunnen-St.Niklaus of the Canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.-References:...

 is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance
Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...

. The entire Waldegg/Feldbrunnnen-St.Niklau area is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...

.

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 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....

 which received 32.26% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...

 (25.56%), the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...

 (22.29%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (10.34%). In the federal election, a total of 473 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 67.5%.

Economy

, Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus had an unemployment rate of 2.2%. , there were 9 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 59 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 8 businesses in this sector. 127 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 38 businesses in this sector. There were 394 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.2% 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 149. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 6, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 55 of which 18 or (32.7%) were in manufacturing and 33 (60.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 88. In the tertiary sector; 9 or 10.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in the movement and storage of goods, 14 or 15.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 11 or 12.5% were in the information industry, 2 or 2.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 23 or 26.1% were technical professionals or scientists and 3 or 3.4% were in health care.

, there were 89 workers who commuted into the municipality and 337 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 14.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 66% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 319 or 42.2% were Roman Catholic, while 262 or 34.7% 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 7 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 0.93% of the population), there were 8 individuals (or about 1.06% 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 12 individuals (or about 1.59% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 4 (or about 0.53% 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. 132 (or about 17.46% 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 12 individuals (or about 1.59% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus about 322 or (42.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 175 or (23.1%) 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 175 who completed tertiary schooling, 78.3% were Swiss men, 20.0% were Swiss women.

, there were 84 students from Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus who attended schools outside the municipality.
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