Oberwil im Simmental 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....

.

Geography

Oberwil im Simmental has an area, , of 46.09 square kilometres (17.8 sq mi). Of this area, 23.69 km² (9.1 sq mi) or 51.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 15.57 km² (6 sq mi) or 33.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.16 km² (0.447878503967341 sq mi) or 2.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.28 km² (0.10810860440591 sq mi) or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and 5.3 km² (2 sq mi) or 11.5% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 27.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 18.8% is pastures and 32.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 7.3% is unproductive vegetation and 4.2% is too rocky for vegetation.

Oberwil is a very large and undeveloped area. It includes large patchs of alpine and forested regions on both sides of the valley. The main settlements are the farming settlements (Bäuerten) of Oberwil, Hintereggen, Pfaffenried, Bunschen and Waldried.

Demographics

Oberwil has a population (as of ) of . , 2.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -10.9%. Most of the population speaks German (99.1%), with French being second most common ( 0.1%) and Rhaeto-romance being third ( 0.1%).

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 61.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the local small left-wing parties (17.9%), the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

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

 (7.9%) 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:...

 (5.4%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.7%. In Oberwil about 49.8% 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...

).

Oberwil has an unemployment rate of 0.71%. , there were 210 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 82 businesses involved in this sector. 66 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 15 businesses in this sector. 49 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 19 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	855
1850	1,405
1900	1,225
1950	1,076
2000	803