Krattigen 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 Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district

Frutigen-Niedersimmental (administrative district)

Frutigen-Niedersimmental District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Oberland administrative region. It contains 13 municipalities with an area of and a population of 38,871....

 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 Bern 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....

.

It is located on a hill overlooking Lake Thun

Lake Thun

Lake Thun is an Alpine lake in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. It took its name from the city of Thun, on its northern shore.Lake Thun's approximately 2,500 km² large catchment area frequently causes local flooding after heavy rainfalls...

.

Geography

Krattigen has an area, , of 6.03 km² (2.3 sq mi). Of this area, 2.25 km² (0.868729856833204 sq mi) or 37.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 3.06 km² (1.2 sq mi) or 50.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.64 km² (0.247105381499222 sq mi) or 10.6% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.06 km² (14.8 acre) or 1.0% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.8%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.5% of the area 45.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 26.7% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops and 9.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Krattigen is located on the left shore of Lake Thun. It includes the villages of Krattigen, Stuhlegg, Örtlimatt and scattered individual farms.

Demographics

Krattigen has a population (as of ) of . , 5.6% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 11.6%. Most of the population speaks German (95.0%), with French being second most common ( 1.8%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 0.9%).

In the 2007 election 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 45.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (16.8%), 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:...

 (10.6%) and the FDP

Free Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (9.5%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 53.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 25.4%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Krattigen about 78.4% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or 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...

).

Krattigen has an unemployment rate of 1.32%. , there were 44 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 14 businesses involved in this sector. 63 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 10 businesses in this sector. 152 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 24 businesses in this sector.

The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	289
1850	598
1900	592
1950	600
1960	589
2000	882