Kriechenwil 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 Bern-Mittelland administrative district

Bern-Mittelland (administrative district)

Bern-Mittelland District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Bern-Mittelland administrative region, and is the only district in the region...

 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....

.

History

Kriechenwil is first mentioned in 1353 as Digki. Until 1959 the official name was Dicki.

Geography

Kriechenwil has an area, , of 4.75 km² (1.8 sq mi). Of this area, 2.59 km² (1 sq mi) or 54.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.9 km² (0.733594101325817 sq mi) or 40.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.26 km² (0.100386561234059 sq mi) or 5.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.9%. 39.8% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 42.1% is used for growing crops and 10.7% is pastures, while 1.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

It lies on the river Saane

Saane/Sarine

Saane or Sarine is one of the largest rivers in Switzerland. It is 128 km long and has a drainage area of 1,892 km². It is a tributary of the river Aar...

 in the central Swiss plateau

Swiss plateau

The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau constitutes one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland alongside the Jura mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface...

 on the border with the Canton of Fribourg

Canton of Fribourg

The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas is the German name for both the canton and the town.-History:...

. It includes the village of Kriechenwil and the hamlets

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of Schönenbühl aund Risau.

Demographics

Kriechenwil has a population (as of ) of . , 1.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -6.4%. Most of the population speaks German (96.6%), with French being second most common ( 1.7%) and Danish being third ( 0.2%).

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 48.6% 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....

 (13.6%), 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....

 (13.1%) 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:...

 (8.7%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 57.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 21%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Kriechenwil about 74.3% 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...

).

Kriechenwil has an unemployment rate of 0.93%. , there were 62 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 22 businesses involved in this sector. 17 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 3 businesses in this sector. 19 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 9 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	199
1850	489
1900	415
1950	390
1960	371
2000	410