Oberwil, Basel-Country
Encyclopedia
Oberwil 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 Arlesheim
Arlesheim (district)
Arlesheim District is one of the five districts of the largely German-speaking canton of Basel-Country, Switzerland. Its capital is the town of Arlesheim. It has a population of .-Geography:...

 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 Basel-Country
Basel-Country
Basel-Landschaft , is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland. The capital is Liestal...

 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....

.

Geography

Oberwil has an area, , of 7.88 square kilometres (3 sq mi). Of this area, 3.47 km² (1.3 sq mi) or 44.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.54 km² (0.594597324232504 sq mi) or 19.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.82 km² (1.1 sq mi) or 35.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km² (7.4 acre) or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.3% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 21.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.4%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.8% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, 17.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 33.0% is used for growing crops and 8.0% is pastures, while 3.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Arlesheim district, in the middle Leimen 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 Gules, a Pallet wavy Argent, in dexter a Sword and in sinister a Key of the same.

Demographics

Oberwil has a population of . , 18.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 11.6%.

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....

 (8,184 or 87.4%), with english
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 being second most common (233 or 2.5%) and 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 third (191 or 2.0%). There are 7 people who speak Romansh.

, the gender distribution of the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 8,466 Swiss citizens (81.2% of the population), and 1,961 non-Swiss residents (18.8%) Of the population in the municipality 1,727 or about 18.4% were born in Oberwil and lived there in 2000. There were 1,457 or 15.6% who were born in the same canton, while 3,916 or 41.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,954 or 20.9% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 77 live births to Swiss citizens and 15 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 53 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 24 while the foreign population increased by 13. There were 6 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland and 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 36 non-Swiss men and 52 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 a decrease of 96 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 125 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.3%.

The age distribution, , in Oberwil is; 705 children or 6.8% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 1,409 teenagers or 13.5% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 966 people or 9.3% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,294 people or 12.4% are between 30 and 39, 1,849 people or 17.7% are between 40 and 49, and 2,130 people or 20.4% are between 50 and 64. The senior population distribution is 1,563 people or 15.0% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 511 people or 4.9% who are over 80.

, there were 3,488 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 4,857 married individuals, 484 widows or widowers and 534 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.53 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 43.4% 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 4,067 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 1,240 households that consist of only one person and 198 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 4,118 households that answered this question, 30.1% were households made up of just one person and 21 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 1,412 married couples without children, 1,134 married couples with children There were 214 single parents with a child or children. There were 46 households that were made up unrelated people and 51 households that were made some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 1,630 single family homes (or 73.0% of the total) out of a total of 2,233 inhabited buildings. There were 397 multi-family buildings (17.8%), along with 135 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (6.0%) and 71 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (3.2%). Of the single family homes 99 were built before 1919, while 212 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (445) were built between 1971 and 1980.

there were 4,418 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 1,329. There were 132 single room apartments and 1,466 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 4,008 apartments (90.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 249 apartments (5.6%) were seasonally occupied and 161 apartments (3.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.7 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.38%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Politics

In the 2011 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2011
Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 23 October 2011.All of the Federal Assembly were to be elected: all 200 seats in the National Council and all 46 seats in the Council of States....

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

 which received 26.3% 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...

 (24.42%) 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....

 (19.11%), and the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...

 (10.32%). In the federal election, a total of 3,498 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 48.5%.

Economy

, Oberwil had an unemployment rate of 2.39%. , there were 171 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 23 businesses involved in this sector. 332 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 72 businesses in this sector. 2,296 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 346 businesses in this sector. There were 4,704 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.9% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 2,377. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 47, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 332, of which 130 or (39.2%) were in manufacturing and 202 (60.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,998. In the tertiary sector; 580 or 29.0% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 265 or 13.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 76 or 3.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 61 or 3.1% were in the information industry, 57 or 2.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 177 or 8.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 194 or 9.7% were in education and 268 or 13.4% were in health care.

, there were 2,363 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,706 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 14.5% of the workforce coming into Oberwil are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.4% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 31.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 40.6% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 3,206 or 34.2% were Roman Catholic, while 3,396 or 36.3% 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 125 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 1.34% of the population), there were 38 individuals (or about 0.41% 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 213 individuals (or about 2.27% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 12 individuals (or about 0.13% of the population) who were Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 312 (or about 3.33% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. There were 33 individuals who were 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...

, 41 individuals who were Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and 12 individuals who belonged to another church. 1,673 (or about 17.87% 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 302 individuals (or about 3.23% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Oberwil about 3,810 or (40.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,984 or (21.2%) 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 1,984 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.1% were Swiss men, 26.2% were Swiss women, 10.2% were non-Swiss men and 7.5% were non-Swiss women. , there were 765 students in Oberwil who came from another municipality, while 346 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Notable residents

  • Dario Zuffi
    Dario Zuffi
    Dario Zuffi is a Swiss football coach and former international player, who is currently a coach for FC Winterthur's U-21 team.-Playing career:Dario Zuffi first became famous when he was playing on BSC Young Boys...

    , former FC Basel
    FC Basel
    Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel is a Swiss football club based in Basel. They are one of the most successful clubs in Swiss football, having won the Swiss Super League 14 times, the third most for any Swiss club. They were most successful in the late 1960s and 1970s, winning the...

     player (prior residence)
  • Roger Federer
    Roger Federer
    Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...

    , current world number three tennis player (moved to Wollerau
    Wollerau
    Wollerau is a municipality in Höfe District in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland.-Geography:Wollerau has an area, , of . Of this area, 56.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 13.6% is forested...

    , Schwyz in March 2008)

External links

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