Iffwil is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

History

Iffwil is first mentioned in 1148 as ''Iffenwilere''. Scattered

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

items were found around the municipality and a

Hallstatt Hallstatt ( , , ) is a small town in the district of Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Salzkammergut ...

grave mound A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

was discovered in the Iffwilerwald. A castle was mentioned near the village in 1346, though only the foundations remain. During the Middle Ages, a number of landowners owned part or all of the village, including the

Counts of Kyburg The Kyburg family (; ; also Kiburg) was a noble family of ''grafen'' (counts) in the Duchy of Swabia, a cadet line of the counts of Dillingen, who in the late 12th and early 13th centuries ruled the County of Kyburg, corresponding to much of wha ...

and the Lords of Jegistorf and Seedorf. In 1332 the Lords of Seedorf sold land and the village low court to citizens of Bern. Between 1334 and 1361 most of these citizens sold or donated their holdings in the village to the ''Niedere Spital'' (Lower Hospital) in Bern. The Hospital appointed an administrator to manage the estates in Iffwil. The village of ''dorf ze Ober Iffwil'' (Upper Iffwil village) was last mentioned in 1356. Sometime after that date, the village was abandoned. During the 20th century, the municipality has changed from a rural, agricultural village into a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many ...

. The location near Bern and at the intersection of the Jegenstorf-Scheunen and Münchenbuchsee-Mülchi roads have encouraged commuters to settle in the municipality. The new neighborhoods of Bergacker and Dorf were built starting in 1965 to house the growing population. Currently, about two-thirds of the population commutes to jobs in nearby cities.

Geography

2011-04-17 Balonveturo (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 165

Iffwil has an area of . Of this area, or 55.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 36.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.9% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 46.8% is used for growing crops and 6.7% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. The municipality is located on the Rapperswil plateau. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Fraubrunnen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011

Coat of arms

The

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. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vi ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

is ''Per fess embatteled of one Argent and Sable and in chief a Bear Paw couped of the last.''

Demographics

2011-11-11-Mezlando (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 109

2011-11-11-Mezlando (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 118

Iffwil has a population () of . , 1.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of −2.1%. Migration accounted for 3.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 4.7%.
accessed 17 January 2013 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

(405 or 98.1%) as their first language, French is the second most common (2 or 0.5%) and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

is the third (1 or 0.2%). , the population was 50.6% male and 49.4% female. The population was made up of 206 Swiss men (50.1% of the population) and 2 (0.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 197 Swiss women (47.9%) and 6 (1.5%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 120 or about 29.1% were born in Iffwil and lived there in 2000. There were 202 or 48.9% who were born in the same canton, while 61 or 14.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 13 or 3.1% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 64% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.6%. , there were 165 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 213 married individuals, 19 widows or widowers and 16 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 28 households that consist of only one person and 12 households with five or more people. , a total of 150 apartments (89.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 12 apartments (7.1%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (3.6%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.57%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:480 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:80 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:193 text:"193" bar:1850 from:start till:374 text:"374" bar:1860 from:start till:381 text:"381" bar:1870 from:start till:390 text:"390" bar:1880 from:start till:383 text:"383" bar:1888 from:start till:350 text:"350" bar:1900 from:start till:339 text:"339" bar:1910 from:start till:357 text:"357" bar:1920 from:start till:369 text:"369" bar:1930 from:start till:349 text:"349" bar:1941 from:start till:346 text:"346" bar:1950 from:start till:329 text:"329" bar:1960 from:start till:338 text:"338" bar:1970 from:start till:309 text:"309" bar:1980 from:start till:301 text:"301" bar:1990 from:start till:320 text:"320" bar:2000 from:start till:413 text:"413" bar:2018 from:start till:443 text:"443"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 33.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (29.7%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (7.7%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

(7.6%). In the federal election, a total of 224 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

was 68.3%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Iffwil had an unemployment rate of 0.44%. , there were a total of 122 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 49 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 15 businesses involved in this sector. 3 people were employed in the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...

and there were 3 businesses in this sector. 70 people were employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, with 16 businesses in this sector. There were 244 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.9% of the workforce. there were a total of 89

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a ...

jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 35, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3 of which 1 was in manufacturing and 2 (66.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 51. In the tertiary sector; 13 or 25.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 3.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 8 or 15.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 7.8% were in education and 18 or 35.3% were in health care. , there were 29 workers who commuted into the municipality and 170 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 16.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.6% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 31 or 7.5% were

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

, while 313 or 75.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 30 individuals (or about 7.26% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 person who was

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

. 40 (or about 9.69% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 13 individuals (or about 3.15% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Iffwil about 173 or (41.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 66 or (16.0%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 66 who completed tertiary schooling, 74.2% were Swiss men, 22.7% were Swiss women. The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

. During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 42 students attending classes in Iffwil. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality. The municipality had 2 primary classes and 42 students. Of the primary students, and 4.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 4 students in Iffwil who came from another municipality, while 22 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern