Lüterkofen-Ichertswil
Encyclopedia
Lüterkofen-Ichertswil 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....

. It was formed in 1961 from the merger of the two previously independent municipalities of Lüterkofen and Ichertswil.

History

Lüterkofen is first mentioned in 1325 as in Luterkon. Ichertswil is first mentioned in 1148 as Hisenharteswilare.

Geography

Lüterkofen-Ichertswil has an area, , of 4.42 square kilometres (1.7 sq mi). Of this area, 2.32 km² (0.895757007934681 sq mi) or 52.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.48 km² (0.571431194716952 sq mi) or 33.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.56 km² (0.21621720881182 sq mi) or 12.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.1%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.5% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 31.0% is used for growing crops and 19.7% is pastures, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Bucheggberg district. It was created in 1961 through the merger of Ichertswil and Lüterkofen.

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 Pally of five Or and Gules, on the middle Pale Or three Chevrons Sable

Demographics

Lüterkofen-Ichertswil has a population of . , 4.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 11%.

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....

 (626 or 97.7%), 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 (5 or 0.8%) and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 being third (2 or 0.3%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 49.9% male and 50.1% female. The population was made up of 348 Swiss men (46.5% of the population) and 26 (3.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 350 Swiss women (46.7%) and 25 (3.3%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 188 or about 29.3% were born in Lüterkofen-Ichertswil and lived there in 2000. There were 216 or 33.7% who were born in the same canton, while 192 or 30.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 33 or 5.1% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 5 live births to Swiss citizens and were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss men and 3 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 5 non-Swiss men and 4 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 an increase of 4 and the non-Swiss population increased by 7 people. This represents a population growth rate of 1.5%.

The age distribution, , in Lüterkofen-Ichertswil is; 31 children or 4.8% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 94 teenagers or 14.7% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 29 people or 4.5% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 176 people or 27.5% are between 25 and 44, and 215 people or 33.5% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 71 people or 11.1% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 25 people or 3.9% who are over 80.

, there were 237 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 330 married individuals, 38 widows or widowers and 36 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.49 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 66.7% 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 270 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 71 households that consist of only one person and 15 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 272 households that answered this question, 26.1% were households made up of just one person and there were 5 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 95 married couples without children, 83 married couples with children There were 14 single parents with a child or children. There were 2 households that were made up of unrelated people and 2 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 135 single family homes (or 64.0% of the total) out of a total of 211 inhabited buildings. There were 35 multi-family buildings (16.6%), along with 37 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (17.5%) and 4 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (1.9%). Of the single family homes 18 were built before 1919, while 16 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (41) were built between 1971 and 1980.

there were 282 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 75. There were 4 single room apartments and 150 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 261 apartments (92.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 18 apartments (6.4%) were seasonally occupied and 3 apartments (1.1%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.7 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%.

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 39.43% 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...

 (20.25%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (19.09%) 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:...

 (9.68%). In the federal election, a total of 314 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 53.6%.

Economy

, Lüterkofen-Ichertswil had an unemployment rate of 1.2%. , there were 34 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 30 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 5 businesses in this sector. 68 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 21 businesses in this sector. There were 377 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.2% 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 102. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 22, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 28 of which 8 or (28.6%) were in manufacturing and 20 (71.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 52. In the tertiary sector; 17 or 32.7% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 17.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 6 or 11.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 6 or 11.5% were in education and 2 or 3.8% were in health care.

, there were 46 workers who commuted into the municipality and 281 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 13.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 95 or 14.8% were Roman Catholic, while 426 or 66.5% 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 3 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 0.47% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs 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 7 individuals (or about 1.09% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 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...

 and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 97 (or about 15.13% 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 10 individuals (or about 1.56% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Lüterkofen-Ichertswil about 312 or (48.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 81 or (12.6%) 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 81 who completed tertiary schooling, 75.3% were Swiss men, 21.0% were Swiss women.

, there was one student in Lüterkofen-Ichertswil who came from another municipality, while 76 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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