Belpberg is a former

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

in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The municipality of Belpberg merged on 1 January 2012 into the municipality of Belp.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 21 December 2011 The villages historic dependency on agriculture,

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a h ...

and cattle breeding have continued to the present day. There is otherwise little employment within the commune, and most of the working inhabitants commute to nearby towns, particularly

History

Roman 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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic coinage points to an early settlement in the area. The first documented use of the name ''Belpberge'' is found in 1342, with the versions ''Belperg'' (1380) and ''Beltperg'' (1390) appearing later. The etymology of the word stem Belp is unclear.

Geography

Belpberg has an area, , of . Of this area, or 65.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 28.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.4% 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 2.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.0%. 26.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 36.1% is used for growing crops and 27.9% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. It is located on a hill that shares the town's name, between the

Aare river The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

and the Gürbetal. It includes a number of

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

(including Linden, Oberhäusern, Hofstetten, z.T. Heitern) and scattered farmhouses. It belongs to the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Belp.

Demographics

Belpberg had a population (as of ) of . , 2.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -2.3%. Most of the population () speaks German (99.5%), with Italian being second most common (0.3%) and Portuguese being third (0.3%). In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 59.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (10.5%), the local small left-wing parties (7.7%) and the FDP (7%). The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.2%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Belpberg about 83.1% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

''). Belpberg has an unemployment rate of 1.21%. , there were 107 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 33 businesses involved in this sector. 6 people are 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 are 3 businesses in this sector. 14 people are 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 ...

, with 5 businesses in this sector.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 14-Jul-2009 The historical population is given in the following table:

References

{{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Bern