Oppligen


Oppligen is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

History

Oppligen is first mentioned in 1234 as Oppelingen.
The oldest trace of a settlement is a Bronze Age earthwork on the Oppligerbergli. In addition, Roman coins and several early medieval graves indicate that the area remained inhabited. By the 13th century, Interlaken Abbey owned the village and its court. In 1336 the residents of Oppligen were listed as citizens of the Abbey. In 1528, Bern adopted the Protestant Reformation and secularized the Abbey and all its lands. Oppligen became part of the newly created Bernese district of Interlaken.
The chapel at Oppligerbergli was first mentioned in 1250, but was demolished during the secularization of 1528. The village was part of the parish of Oberwichtrach.
The village was generally rural until the 1970s when the expanding agglomeration of Bern reached it. As of 2000 about three-quarters of the population commutes to jobs in the Bern region.

Geography

Oppligen has an area of. As of 2012, a total of or 54.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 32.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 12.0% is settled, or 1.2% is either rivers or lakes.
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 5.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.8% of the area Out of the forested land, 29.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 39.0% is used for growing crops and 14.1% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the lower Kiesental and Rotachental and includes the village of Oppligen and the hamlet of Rotachen.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Konolfingen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Cross Gules couped issuant from the base pattee.

Demographics

Oppligen has a population of., 5.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 0.5%. Migration accounted for -0.2%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.2%.
Most of the population speaks German as their first language, French is the second most common and Portuguese is the third. There is 1 person who speaks Italian.
, the population was 49.0% male and 51.0% female. The population was made up of 307 Swiss men and 19 non-Swiss men. There were 324 Swiss women and 15 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 182 or about 30.8% were born in Oppligen and lived there in 2000. There were 300 or 50.8% who were born in the same canton, while 57 or 9.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 35 or 5.9% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers make up 25.4% of the population, while adults make up 58.7% and seniors make up 15.9%.
, there were 259 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 275 married individuals, 29 widows or widowers and 27 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 70 households that consist of only one person and 26 households with five or more people., a total of 218 apartments were permanently occupied, while 15 apartments were seasonally occupied and 3 apartments were empty., the construction rate of new housing units was 4.5 new units per 1000 residents.
The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:1930 from:start till:399 text:"399"
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bar:1960 from:start till:429 text:"429"
bar:1970 from:start till:424 text:"424"
bar:1980 from:start till:479 text:"479"
bar:1990 from:start till:548 text:"548"
bar:2000 from:start till:590 text:"590"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party which received 36.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party , the Social Democratic Party and the Green Party. In the federal election, a total of 236 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.5%.

Economy

, Oppligen had an unemployment rate of 0.98%., there were a total of 162 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 58 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 61 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 4 businesses in this sector. 43 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 14 businesses in this sector. There were 300 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.7% of the workforce.
there were a total of 118 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 30, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 56 of which 7 or were in manufacturing, 48 or were in mining and 1 was in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 32. In the tertiary sector; 11 or 34.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 8 or 25.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 6.3% were technical professionals or scientists and 5 or 15.6% were in education.
, there were 69 workers who commuted into the municipality and 228 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 18.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 56.3% used a private car.

Religion

From the, 494 or 83.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 33 or 5.6% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 40 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist, 2 individuals who were Hindu and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 27 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 9 individuals did not answer the question.

Education

In Oppligen about 249 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 71 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 71 who completed tertiary schooling, 74.6% were Swiss men, 19.7% were Swiss women.
The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, 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.
During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 60 students attending classes in Oppligen. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 9 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 22.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland and 22.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 51 students. Of the primary students, 2.0% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland and 5.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language.
, there were 34 students from Oppligen who attended schools outside the municipality.