Kiesen

Kiesen
Country Switzerland
Canton Bern
District Bern-Mittelland
Coordinates
Population 838 (Dec 2010)[1]
- Density 178 /km2 (462 /sq mi)
Area  4.68 km2 (1.81 sq mi)[2]
Elevation 547 m (1,795 ft)
Postal code 3629
SFOS number 0611
Surrounded by Heimberg, Jaberg, Oppligen, Uttigen, Wichtrach
Twin towns Zeliv (Czech Republic)
Website www.kiesen.ch
SFSO statistics
Kiesen

Kiesen is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

Contents

History

Kiesen is first mentioned in 1236 as Chisun.[3]

Geography

Kiesen has an area, as of 2009, of 4.68 km2 (1.81 sq mi). Of this area, 2.48 km2 (0.96 sq mi) or 53.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.25 km2 (0.48 sq mi) or 26.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.84 km2 (0.32 sq mi) or 17.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.13 km2 (32 acres) or 2.8% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km2 (2.5 acres) or 0.2% is unproductive land.[4]

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 9.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.8%. 26.5% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 41.5% is used for growing crops and 10.9% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.[4]

It is located along the banks of the Chisen and Rotachen Rivers where they flow into the Aare River.

Demographics

Kiesen has a population (as of 31 December 2010) of 838.[1] As of 2007, 3.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 2.4%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (95.4%), with Albanian being second most common ( 1.2%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 0.9%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 36.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (17.2%), the Green Party (14.8%) and the FDP (13.5%).

The age distribution of the population (as of 2000) is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 63.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 11.1%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Kiesen about 84.3% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).

Kiesen has an unemployment rate of 1.42%. As of 2005, there were 51 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 161 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 8 businesses in this sector. 85 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 20 businesses in this sector.[5] The historical population is given in the following table:[3]

year population
1764 186
1850 437
1900 433
1950 549
1980 627
2000 742

References

  1. ^ a b Swiss Federal Statistical Office - STAT-TAB, online database – Datenwürfel für Thema 01.2 - Bevölkerungsstand und -bewegung (German) accessed 29 September
  2. ^ Arealstatistik Standard - Gemeindedaten nach 4 Hauptbereichen
  3. ^ a b Kiesen in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  4. ^ a b Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data (German) accessed 25 March 2010
  5. ^ Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 02-Jul-2009

External links