Messen
Messen is a municipality in the district of Bucheggberg, in the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 the municipalities of Balm bei Messen, Brunnenthal and Oberramsern merged into the municipality of Messen.
History
Messen is first mentioned in 1223 as Messon. Balm bei Messen is first mentioned in 1254 as de Balmo. In 1275 it was mentioned as in Balm. Brunnenthal is first mentioned in 1387 as Wernher von Brunnental. In 1396 it was mentioned as Brunental. Oberramsern is first mentioned in 1276 as Rambsern though this comes from a 17th-century copy of the original. In 1318 it was mentioned as Ramserron superiori.Geography
Messen has an area,, of. Of this area, or 63.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 29.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.9% is settled, or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 50.0% is used for growing crops and 10.9% is pastures, while 2.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the Bucheggberg district, in the hill country south of the Limpach valley. It consists of the haufendorf village of Messen and the hamlets of Eichholz and Niderwol. It now also includes the former independent municipalities of Balm bei Messen, Brunnenthal and Oberramsern.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a House with two Towers embattled all Argent.Demographics
Messen has a population of. , 2.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 3.5%.Most of the population speaks German, with French being second most common and Portuguese being third.
, the gender distribution of the population was 52.4% male and 47.6% female. The population was made up of 521 Swiss men and 30 non-Swiss men. There were 479 Swiss women and 22 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 350 or about 36.2% were born in Messen and lived there in 2000. There were 112 or 11.6% who were born in the same canton, while 442 or 45.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 37 or 3.8% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 9 live births to Swiss citizens and were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland and 1 Swiss woman who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 2 non-Swiss men and 2 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 was an increase of 3 and the non-Swiss population increased by 1 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.4%.
The age distribution,, in Messen is; 98 children or 10.1% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 158 teenagers or 16.3% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 39 people or 4.0% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 343 people or 35.4% are between 25 and 44, and 205 people or 21.2% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 96 people or 9.9% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 29 people or 3.0% who are over 80.
, there were 408 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 507 married individuals, 25 widows or widowers and 28 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 512 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 69 households that consist of only one person and 30 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 371 households that answered this question, 18.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 4 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 118 married couples without children, 147 married couples with children There were 20 single parents with a child or children. There were 4 households that were made up of unrelated people and 9 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 155 single family homes out of a total of 260 inhabited buildings. There were 33 multi-family buildings, along with 58 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing and 14 other use buildings that also had some housing. Of the single family homes 21 were built before 1919, while 42 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes were built between 1981 and 1990.
there were 360 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 97. There were 4 single room apartments and 168 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 347 apartments were permanently occupied, while 6 apartments were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 0%.
Historic Population
The historical population is given in the following chart:Colors=
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Colors=
id:ME value:yellowgreen legend:Messen
id:BA value:green legend:Balm_bei_Messen
id:BR value:blue legend:Brunnenthal
id:OB value:red legend:Oberramsern
PlotData=
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bar:1850 from: 0 till:670 text:"670" color:ME
bar:1860 from: 0 till:601 text:"601" color:ME
bar:1870 from: 0 till:636 text:"636" color:ME
bar:1880 from: 0 till:655 text:"655" color:ME
bar:1890 from: 0 till:682 text:"682" color:ME
bar:1900 from: 0 till:606 text:"606" color:ME
bar:1910 from: 0 till:631 text:"631" color:ME
bar:1920 from: 0 till:623 text:"623" color:ME
bar:1930 from: 0 till:637 text:"637" color:ME
bar:1940 from: 0 till:642 text:"642" color:ME
bar:1950 from: 0 till:674 text:"674" color:ME
bar:1960 from: 0 till:682 text:"682" color:ME
bar:1970 from: 0 till:687 text:"687" color:ME
bar:1980 from: 0 till:670 text:"670" color:ME
bar:1990 from: 0 till:707 text:"707" color:ME
bar:2000 from: 0 till:968 text:"968" color:ME
bar:1850 from: 670 till:837 text:"167" color:BA
bar:1860 from: 601 till:776 text:"175" color:BA
bar:1870 from: 636 till:811 text:"175" color:BA
bar:1880 from: 655 till:830 text:"175" color:BA
bar:1890 from: 682 till:841 text:"159" color:BA
bar:1900 from: 606 till:754 text:"148" color:BA
bar:1910 from: 631 till:772 text:"141" color:BA
bar:1920 from: 623 till:751 text:"128" color:BA
bar:1930 from: 637 till:757 text:"120" color:BA
bar:1940 from: 642 till:779 text:"137" color:BA
bar:1950 from: 674 till:854 text:"180" color:BA
bar:1960 from: 682 till:827 text:"145" color:BA
bar:1970 from: 687 till:797 text:"110" color:BA
bar:1980 from: 670 till:762 text:"92" color:BA
bar:1990 from: 707 till:809 text:"102" color:BA
bar:2000 from: 968 till:1077 text:"109" color:BA
bar:1850 from: 837 till:1103 text:"266" color:BR
bar:1860 from: 776 till:1024 text:"248" color:BR
bar:1870 from: 811 till:1079 text:"268" color:BR
bar:1880 from: 830 till:1077 text:"247" color:BR
bar:1890 from: 841 till:1063 text:"222" color:BR
bar:1900 from: 754 till:968 text:"214" color:BR
bar:1910 from: 772 till:949 text:"177" color:BR
bar:1920 from: 751 till:947 text:"196" color:BR
bar:1930 from: 757 till:931 text:"174" color:BR
bar:1940 from: 779 till:955 text:"176" color:BR
bar:1950 from: 854 till:1047 text:"193" color:BR
bar:1960 from: 827 till:1002 text:"175" color:BR
bar:1970 from: 797 till:945 text:"148" color:BR
bar:1980 from: 762 till:917 text:"155" color:BR
bar:1990 from: 809 till:962 text:"153" color:BR
bar:2000 from: 1077 till:1266 text:"189" color:BR
bar:1850 from: 1103 till:1230 text:"127" color:OB
bar:1860 from: 1024 till:1169 text:"145" color:OB
bar:1870 from: 1079 till:1202 text:"123" color:OB
bar:1880 from: 1077 till:1211 text:"134" color:OB
bar:1890 from: 1063 till:1202 text:"139" color:OB
bar:1900 from: 968 till:1084 text:"116" color:OB
bar:1910 from: 949 till:1076 text:"127" color:OB
bar:1920 from: 947 till:1060 text:"113" color:OB
bar:1930 from: 931 till:1059 text:"128" color:OB
bar:1940 from: 955 till:1065 text:"110" color:OB
bar:1950 from: 1047 till:1144 text:"97" color:OB
bar:1960 from: 1002 till:1115 text:"113" color:OB
bar:1970 from: 945 till:1056 text:"111" color:OB
bar:1980 from: 917 till:1015 text:"98" color:OB
bar:1990 from: 962 till:1047 text:"85" color:OB
bar:2000 from: 1266 till:1357 text:"91" color:OB
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 33.76% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP, the SP and the Green Party. In the federal election, a total of 389 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 51.6%.Economy
, Messen had an unemployment rate of 0.8%. , there were 116 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 44 businesses involved in this sector. 55 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 11 businesses in this sector. 224 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 49 businesses in this sector. There were 531 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.2% of the workforce.the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 235. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 46, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 38 of which 17 or were in manufacturing and 21 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 151. In the tertiary sector; 49 or 32.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 32 or 21.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 10 or 6.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 6 or 4.0% were in the information industry, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 7.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 30 or 19.9% were in education and 6 or 4.0% were in health care.
, there were 116 workers who commuted into the municipality and 335 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 9.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 56.1% used a private car.
Religion
From the, 92 or 9.5% were Roman Catholic, while 795 or 82.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 3 members of an Orthodox church, there were 2 individuals who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 3 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islamic. 49 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 23 individuals did not answer the question.Education
In Messen about 385 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 162 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 162 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.5% were Swiss men, 24.7% were Swiss women., there were 90 students in Messen who came from another municipality, while 33 residents attended schools outside the municipality.