Steinhof 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 district of

Wasseramt Wasseramt District is one of the ten districts of the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Solothurn (canton), Solothurn in Switzerland, situated to the south of the canton. Together with the Bucheggberg (district), Bucheggberg District, it forms th ...

in the canton of

Solothurn Solothurn ( ; ; ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains. The town is ...

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 an

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

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 ...

. The municipality of Steinhof merged on 1 January 2012 into the municipality of Aeschi.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 17 February 2011

History

Steinhof is first mentioned in 1201 as ''Heinricus de Steine''. It was first mentioned as Steinhof in 1766.

Geography

Steinhof had an area, , of . Of this area, or 63.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 29.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes.
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 37.2% is used for growing crops and 24.4% is pastures, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Wasseramt district. The village is an

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

of Solothurn and is surrounded by the

Canton of Bern The canton of Bern, or Berne (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the c ...

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 ''Or an Ibex rampant Sable on a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert.''

Demographics

Steinhof had a population () of 141. , 4.6% 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 9.2%. It has changed at a rate of 10.8% due to migration and at a rate of 2.3% due to births and deaths.
accessed 15-April-2011 Most of the population () speaks

German 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 ...

(142 or 99.3%) with the rest speaking French , the gender distribution of the population was 45.4% male and 54.6% female. The population was made up of 62 Swiss men (44.0% of the population) and 2 (1.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 74 Swiss women (52.5%) and 3 (2.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 64 or about 44.8% were born in Steinhof and lived there in 2000. There were 35 or 24.5% who were born in the same canton, while 38 or 26.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 3 or 2.1% were born outside of Switzerland. In there was 1 live birth to Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 3 and the non-Swiss population increased by 1 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 2.7%. The age distribution, , in Steinhof is; 11 children or 7.7% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 38 teenagers or 26.6% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 6 people or 4.2% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 36 people or 25.2% are between 25 and 44, and 27 people or 18.9% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 20 people or 14.0% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 5 people or 3.5% who are over 80. , there were 60 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 79 married individuals, 3 widows or widowers and 1 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 the average number of residents per living room was 0.64 which is more people per room than the cantonal average of 0.56 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 74.4% 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). , there were 46 private households in the municipality, and an average of 3.1 persons per household. There were 7 households that consist of only one person and 8 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 46 households that answered this question, 15.2% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 13 married couples without children, 24 married couples with children There were 2 single parents with a child or children. there were 23 single family homes (or 59.0% of the total) out of a total of 39 inhabited buildings. There were 2 multi-family buildings (5.1%), along with 12 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (30.8%) and 2 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.1%). Of the single family homes 4 were built before 1919, while 2 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (8) were built between 1981 and 1990.Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 there were 49 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 17. There were 1 single room apartments and 24 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 43 apartments (87.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 4 apartments (8.2%) were seasonally occupied and 2 apartments (4.1%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 14.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1080 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:180 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:40 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:8 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1684 from:start till:109 text:"109" bar:1798 from:start till:98 text:"98" bar:1850 from:start till:150 text:"150" bar:1860 from:start till:180 text:"180" bar:1870 from:start till:168 text:"168" bar:1880 from:start till:155 text:"155" bar:1888 from:start till:139 text:"139" bar:1900 from:start till:137 text:"137" bar:1910 from:start till:140 text:"140" bar:1920 from:start till:144 text:"144" bar:1930 from:start till:141 text:"141" bar:1941 from:start till:124 text:"124" bar:1950 from:start till:125 text:"125" bar:1960 from:start till:111 text:"111" bar:1970 from:start till:115 text:"115" bar:1980 from:start till:87 text:"87" bar:1990 from:start till:117 text:"117" bar:2000 from:start till:143 text:"143"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 26.29% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (22.07%), the SP (19.25%) and the FDP (15.26%). In the federal election, a total of 63 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 56.8%.

Economy

, Steinhof had an unemployment rate of 5.2%. , there were 19 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 5 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 was 1 business in this sector. 3 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 1 business in this sector. There were 66 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.4% 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 20. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 15, of which 7 were in agriculture and 8 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3, all of which were in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 2, both in a hotel or restaurant.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011 , there were 4 workers who commuted into the municipality and 49 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 12.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 16.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.5% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 86 or 60.1% 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 43 or 30.1% 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 ...

. 10 (or about 6.99% 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 ...

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 4 individuals (or about 2.80% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Steinhof about 52 or (36.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 18 or (12.6%) 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 18 who completed tertiary schooling, 50.0% were Swiss men, 44.4% were Swiss women. , there were 34 students from Steinhof who attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Solothurn