Birrhard 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

Brugg Brugg (sometimes written as Brugg AG in order to distinguish it from other ''Brugg''s) is a Switzerland, Swiss Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality and a List of towns in Switzerland, town in the canton of Aargau and is the seat of the Bru ...

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

Aargau Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau. Aargau is one of the most nort ...

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 ...

. It is located about south east of the town of

History

Birrhard is first mentioned in 1254 as ''Birharth'' when it belonged to the

Habsburgs The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

. The authority over the village went to the monastery Königsfelden in Windisch in 1397. After the secularization of the monastery in 1528, the authority went to Bern.

Geography

Birrhard has an area, , of . Of this area, or 52.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 33.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 12.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.7% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 0.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 6.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.7%.. 32.8% of the total land area was heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 46.2% is used for growing crops and 5.7% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. The municipality is made up of the communities of Ausserdorf, Unterdorf (both part of the

linear village In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties: * linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping''); * linearity of a ''polynomial''. An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x)= ...

of Birrhard) and the

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 ...

of Inlauf. It is located on the eastern edge of the expansive and mainly agriculture ''Birrfeld'' region. Just to the east of the town the plain drops about to the banks of the

Reuss Reuss may refer to: *Reuss (surname) * Reuss (river) in Switzerland * Imperial County of Reuss or Reuß, several former states or countries in present-day Germany, and the People's State of Reuss * Principality of Reuss-Greiz and Principality of R ...

river. The Reuss forms the eastern boundary of the municipality, and, in this area, flows through a valley about wide. The highest point has an elevation of , and the lowest elevation, along the Reuss, is . Neighboring municipalities are Mülligen to the north, Birmenstorf to the east,

Wohlenschwil Wohlenschwil is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Baden (district, Aargau), Baden in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History On June 3, 1653 Wohlenschwil was the site of the Battle of ...

and

Mägenwil Mägenwil is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Baden (district, Aargau), Baden in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History Mägenwil is first mentioned in 924 as ''Maganwilare''. In 127 ...

to the south,

Brunegg Brunegg is a municipality in the district of Lenzburg in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History Brunegg is first mentioned in first half of the 12th century as ''Bruneco''. In 1273 it was mentioned as ''Brunegge''. Brunegg castle was b ...

to the south-east and Birr and

Lupfig Lupfig is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Brugg (district), Brugg in Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau in Switzerland. On 1 January 2018 the former municipality of Scherz merged into the municipality of Lup ...

to the west. The municipalities of Birr and Birrhard are considering a merger on 1 January 2014 into a new municipality which will be known as Birr.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2010

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 a Pear Tree eradicated Vert fructed Or and in Base wavy Argent fimbriated and with two fillets wavy Sable.'' This may be an example of

canting ' (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: , Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, VOS Spelling: , ) is a pen-like tool used to apply liquid hot wax () in the batik-making process in Indonesia, more precisely (). Traditional consists of copper wax-con ...

as the German word for pear tree () is similar to Birrhard.

Demographics

Birrhard has a population () of . , 9.6% of the population are foreign nationals.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bereich 01 -Bevölkerung
accessed 20 January 2010 Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 1.3%. Most of the population () speaks German (95.0%), with Italian being second most common ( 1.3%) and Albanian being third ( 1.0%).
accessed 1 April 2010 The age distribution, , in Birrhard is; 63 children or 9.7% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 83 teenagers or 12.7% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 72 people or 11.0% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 67 people or 10.3% are between 30 and 39, 148 people or 22.7% are between 40 and 49, and 101 people or 15.5% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 68 people or 10.4% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 32 people or 4.9% are between 70 and 79, there are 16 people or 2.5% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 2 people or 0.3% who are 90 and older.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bevölkerungsdaten für den Kanton Aargau und die Gemeinden (Archiv)
accessed 20 January 2010 the average number of residents per living room was 0.58 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.57 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 74.3% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners t ...

or a

rent-to-own Rent-to-own, also known as rental purchase or rent-to-buy, is a type of legally documented transaction under which tangible property, such as furniture, consumer electronics, motor vehicles, home appliances, engagement rings, and real property, ...

agreement).Urban Audit Glossary pg 17 , there were 17 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 111 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 121 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. The average number of people per household was 2.57 individuals. there were 173 single family homes (or 61.1% of the total) out of a total of 283 homes and apartments.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau
accessed 20 January 2010 There were a total of 3 empty apartments for a 1.1% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 10.9 new units per 1000 residents. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 50.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (14%), the FDP (11.8%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

(8.3%). The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Birrhard about 82.8% of the population of ages 25–64 have completed either 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 ...

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 ...

''). Of the school age population (), there are 54 students attending

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following table:

Economy

, Birrhard had an unemployment rate of 1.34%. , there were 46 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 75 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 6 businesses in this sector. 70 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 17 businesses in this sector. there was a total of 368 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 319 or about 86.7% of the residents worked outside Birrhard while 109 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 158 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau-Bereich 11 Verkehr und Nachrichtenwesen
accessed 21 January 2010 Of the working population, 8.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 226 or 33.2% 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 351 or 51.5% 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 ...

.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau – Aargauer Zahlen 2009
accessed 20 January 2010

References

External links

Official website of Birrhard
* {{Authority control