Messen
Encyclopedia
Messen 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....

. On 1 January 2010 the municipalities of Balm bei Messen
Balm bei Messen
Balm bei Messen was a municipality in the district of Bucheggberg in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 the municipalities of Balm bei Messen, Brunnenthal and Oberramsern merged into the municipality of Messen.-History:...

, Brunnenthal
Brunnenthal, Switzerland
Brunnenthal was a municipality in the district of Bucheggberg, in the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 the municipalities of Balm bei Messen, Brunnenthal and Oberramsern merged into the municipality of Messen.-History:...

 and Oberramsern
Oberramsern
Oberramsern was a municipality in the district of Bucheggberg in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010, the municipalities of Balm bei Messen, Brunnenthal and Oberramsern merged into the municipality of Messen.-History:...

 merged into the municipality of Messen.

History

Messen is first mentioned in 1223 as Messon. Balm bei Messen is first mentioned in 1254 as de Balmo. In 1275 it was mentioned as in Balm. Brunnenthal is first mentioned in 1387 as Wernher von Brunnental. In 1396 it was mentioned as Brunental. Oberramsern is first mentioned in 1276 as Rambsern though this comes from a 17th Century copy of the original. In 1318 it was mentioned as Ramserron superiori.

Geography

Messen has an area, , of 7.08 square kilometres (2.7 sq mi). Of this area, 4.46 km² (1.7 sq mi) or 63.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.07 km² (0.799231468286547 sq mi) or 29.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.49 km² (0.189190057710342 sq mi) or 6.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km² (7.4 acre) or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 50.0% is used for growing crops and 10.9% is pastures, while 2.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Bucheggberg district, in the hill country south of the Limpach valley. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Messen 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 Eichholz and Niderwol. It now also includes the former independent municipalities of Balm bei Messen, Brunnenthal and Oberramsern.

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 Azure a House with two Towers embattled all Argent.

Demographics

Messen has a population of . , 2.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 3.5%.

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....

 (945 or 97.6%), 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 (10 or 1.0%) and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 being third (3 or 0.3%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 52.4% male and 47.6% female. The population was made up of 521 Swiss men (49.5% of the population) and 30 (2.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 479 Swiss women (45.5%) and 22 (2.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 350 or about 36.2% were born in Messen and lived there in 2000. There were 112 or 11.6% who were born in the same canton, while 442 or 45.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 37 or 3.8% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 9 live births to Swiss citizens and were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland and 1 Swiss woman who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 2 non-Swiss men and 2 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 3 and the non-Swiss population increased by 1 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.4%.

The age distribution, , in Messen is; 98 children or 10.1% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 158 teenagers or 16.3% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 39 people or 4.0% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 343 people or 35.4% are between 25 and 44, and 205 people or 21.2% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 96 people or 9.9% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 29 people or 3.0% who are over 80.

, there were 408 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 507 married individuals, 25 widows or widowers and 28 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.56 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 65.5% 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 512 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 69 households that consist of only one person and 30 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 371 households that answered this question, 18.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 4 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 118 married couples without children, 147 married couples with children There were 20 single parents with a child or children. There were 4 households that were made up of unrelated people and 9 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 155 single family homes (or 59.6% of the total) out of a total of 260 inhabited buildings. There were 33 multi-family buildings (12.7%), along with 58 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (22.3%) and 14 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.4%). Of the single family homes 21 were built before 1919, while 42 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (31) were built between 1981 and 1990.

there were 360 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 97. There were 4 single room apartments and 168 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 347 apartments (96.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 6 apartments (1.7%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (1.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%.

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 33.76% 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...

 (29.46%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (19.13%) 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:...

 (7.79%). In the federal election, a total of 389 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 51.6%.

Economy

, Messen had an unemployment rate of 0.8%. , there were 116 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 44 businesses involved in this sector. 55 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 11 businesses in this sector. 224 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 49 businesses in this sector. There were 531 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.2% 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 235. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 46, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 38 of which 17 or (44.7%) were in manufacturing and 21 (55.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 151. In the tertiary sector; 49 or 32.5% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 32 or 21.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 10 or 6.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 6 or 4.0% were in the information industry, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 7.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 30 or 19.9% were in education and 6 or 4.0% were in health care.

, there were 116 workers who commuted into the municipality and 335 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 9.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 56.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 92 or 9.5% were Roman Catholic, while 795 or 82.1% 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 0.31% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.21% 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 3 individuals (or about 0.31% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were there was 1 individual who was Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. 49 (or about 5.06% 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 23 individuals (or about 2.38% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Messen about 385 or (39.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 162 or (16.7%) 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 162 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.5% were Swiss men, 24.7% were Swiss women.

, there were 90 students in Messen who came from another municipality, while 33 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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