Biezwil is a
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
district of Bucheggberg, in the
canton of Solothurn
The canton of Solothurn or canton of Soleure (; ; ; ) is a Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Switzerland. It is located in the northwest of Switzerland. The capital is Solothurn.
History
The village of ''Salodurum'' was founded in the time of t ...
,
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 ...
.
History
Biezwil is first mentioned in 1255 as ''in Beizwile ''. In 1276 it was mentioned as ''zue Biezwile'' and in 1279 as ''de Biezwile''.
[
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Geography
Biezwil has an area, , of . Of this area, or 51.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 41.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.7% 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 4.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 39.0% is used for growing crops and 11.0% is pastures, while 1.9% is used for orchards or vine crops.[
The municipality is located in the Bucheggberg district. It consists of the ''haufendorf'' village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Biezwil and the Aspi, Schoren and Zelgli individual farm houses.
]
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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
is ''Gules three Ears Or issuant from a Mount of 3 Coupeaux of the same.''
Demographics
Biezwil has a population () of . , 3.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008]
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 18.3%.
accessed 17-March-2011German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
(284 or 98.3%), with French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
being second most common (4 or 1.4%) and Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
being third (1 or 0.3%).[
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.2% male and 50.8% female. The population was made up of 156 Swiss men (47.1% of the population) and 7 (2.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 165 Swiss women (49.8%) and 3 (0.9%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 103 or about 35.6% were born in Biezwil and lived there in 2000. There were 51 or 17.6% who were born in the same canton, while 124 or 42.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 7 or 2.4% were born outside of Switzerland.][
In there were 6 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 death of a Swiss citizen. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population remained the same. There . At the same time, there . The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 9 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 2 people. This represents a ]population growth rate
Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...
of 2.2%.[
The age distribution, , in Biezwil is; 19 children or 6.6% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 49 teenagers or 17.0% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 9 people or 3.1% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 91 people or 31.5% are between 25 and 44, and 84 people or 29.1% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 24 people or 8.3% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 13 people or 4.5% who are over 80.
, there were 115 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 140 married individuals, 20 widows or widowers and 14 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 120 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household.[ There were 33 households that consist of only one person and 5 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 123 households that answered this question, 26.8% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 42 married couples without children, 40 married couples with children There were 4 single parents with a child or children. There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 3 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.][ there were 68 single family homes (or 64.8% of the total) out of a total of 105 inhabited buildings. There were 6 multi-family buildings (5.7%), along with 30 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (28.6%) and 1 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (1.0%). Of the single family homes 23 were built before 1919, while 27 were built between 1990 and 2000.][Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
there were 125 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 40. There were 3 single room apartments and 55 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 117 apartments (93.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 5 apartments (4.0%) were seasonally occupied and 3 apartments (2.4%) were empty.[ , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents.][ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 46.28% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (26.28%), the SP (12.79%) and the CVP (6.51%). In the federal election, a total of 126 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
was 51.2%.
Economy
, Biezwil had an unemployment rate of 1.7%. , there were 41 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 15 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 2 businesses in this sector. 14 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 ...
, with 5 businesses in this sector.[ There were 180 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.0% of the workforce.
the total number of ]full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement 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 use ...
jobs was 49. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 23, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 14, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 12. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in a hotel or restaurant, 9 or 75.0% were technical professionals or scientists, and 1 was in health care.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 19 workers who commuted into the municipality and 134 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 7.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 6.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 65.6% used a private car.[
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Religion
From the , 29 or 10.0% were Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 222 or 76.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, and there were 3 individuals (or about 1.04% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. 27 (or about 9.34% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
or atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and 7 individuals (or about 2.42% of the population) did not answer the question.[
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Education
In Biezwil about 116 or (40.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education
Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education.
Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...
, and 41 or (14.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
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 ...
''). Of the 41 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.2% were Swiss men, 24.4% were Swiss women.[
, there were 8 students in Biezwil who came from another municipality, while 41 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
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References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Solothurn