Hessigkofen
Encyclopedia
Hessigkofen 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 Bucheggberg
Bucheggberg (district)
Bucheggberg District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland, situated to the southwest of the canton. Together with the Wasseramt District, it forms the Amtei of Wasseramt-Bucheggberg...

, in the canton of Solothurn
Canton of Solothurn
Solothurn is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the northwest of Switzerland. The capital is Solothurn.-History:The territory of the canton comprises land acquired by the capital...

, 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

Hessigkofen has an area, , of 2.26 square kilometre (0.872590878419129 sq mi). Of this area, 1.35 km² (0.521237914099922 sq mi) or 59.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.74 km² (0.285715597358476 sq mi) or 32.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.17 km² (0.065637366960731 sq mi) or 7.5% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.2%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 36.7% is used for growing crops and 21.7% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops.

The municipality is located in the Bucheggberg district, in the Müli valley.

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 Or a Quatrefoil Rose Gules barbed and seeded proper over a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert.

Demographics

Hessigkofen has a population of . , 2.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 6.9%.

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....

 (246 or 99.2%), 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...

 and Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 both being second most common (1 or 0.4% each).

, the gender distribution of the population was 50.8% male and 49.2% female. The population was made up of 128 Swiss men (48.5% of the population) and 6 (2.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 127 Swiss women (48.1%) and 3 (1.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 91 or about 36.7% were born in Hessigkofen and lived there in 2000. There were 71 or 28.6% who were born in the same canton, while 76 or 30.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 7 or 2.8% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 2 live births to Swiss citizens and were 5 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 3 while the foreign population remained the same. There . At the same time, there . The total Swiss population remained the same in 2008 and the non-Swiss population increased by 1 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.4%.

The age distribution, , in Hessigkofen is; 32 children or 12.9% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 44 teenagers or 17.7% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 14 people or 5.6% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 70 people or 28.2% are between 25 and 44, and 60 people or 24.2% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 17 people or 6.9% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 11 people or 4.4% who are over 80.

, there were 101 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 131 married individuals, 7 widows or widowers and 9 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.59 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 65.9% 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 83 private households in the municipality, and an average of 3. persons per household. There were 14 households that consist of only one person and 12 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 85 households that answered this question, 16.5% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 24 married couples without children, 43 married couples with children There was one single parent with a child or children. There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 2 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 42 single family homes (or 60.0% of the total) out of a total of 70 inhabited buildings. There were 6 multi-family buildings (8.6%), along with 19 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (27.1%) and 3 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.3%). Of the single family homes 13 were built before 1919, while 8 were built between 1990 and 2000.

there were 82 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 21. There was 1 single room apartments and 46 apartments with five or more rooms. All of the apartments were permanently occupied. , the construction rate of new housing units was 11.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.08%.

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 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 29.12% 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....

 (27.92%), 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...

 (18.32%) and 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:...

 (15.92%). In the federal election, a total of 131 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 66.2%.

Economy

, Hessigkofen had an unemployment rate of 0.6%. , there were 22 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 6 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 4 businesses in this sector. 72 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 12 businesses in this sector. There were 133 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.1% 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 73. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 15, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 5, all of which were in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 53. In the tertiary sector; 35 or 66.0% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 5 or 9.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 6 or 11.3% were in education and 6 or 11.3% were in health care.

, there were 26 workers who commuted into the municipality and 90 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 7.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 60.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 29 or 11.7% were Roman Catholic, while 174 or 70.2% 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 4 individuals (or about 1.61% 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 13 individuals (or about 5.24% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 28 (or about 11.29% 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...

,FALSE

Weather

Hessigkofen has an average of 130.6 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives 1112 mm (43.8 in) of precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...

. The wettest month is August during which time Hessigkofen receives an average of 124 mm (4.9 in) of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 11.2 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 12.8, but with only 103 mm (4.1 in) of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is March with an average of 76 mm (3 in) of precipitation over 12.1 days.

Education

In Hessigkofen about 102 or (41.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 45 or (18.1%) 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 45 who completed tertiary schooling, 71.1% were Swiss men, 28.9% were Swiss women.

, there were 150 students in Hessigkofen who came from another municipality, while 37 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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