Langendorf, Switzerland
Langendorf is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Solothurn, located in the district of Lebern. History. Langendorf is first mentioned in 1304 as "Lengendorf". Geography. Langendorf has an area, , of . Of this area, or 39.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 11.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 49.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 5.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 33.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.8%. while parks, green belts and  sports fields made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 25.9% is used for growing crops and 13.0% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Lebern district. Originally it was a linear village on both sides of the Wildbach river. Today it is part of the agglomeration of Solothurn. The municipalities of Biberist, Derendingen, Luterbach, Bellach, Langendorf and Solothurn are considering a merger at a date in the future into the new municipality of with  an, , undetermined name. Coat of arms. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Gules an Owl displayed Argent holding in beak on a strap an escutcheon Gules a Cross couped Argent (Switzerland) standing on a Cannon Pipe Or mouth to dexter inscribed "VORWÄRTS" of the first." Demographics. Langendorf has a population () of . , 13.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 6.2%. Most of the population () speaks German (3,136 or 92.2%), with Italian being second most common (96 or 2.8%) and French being third (31  or 0.9%). There are 4 people who speak Romansh. , the gender distribution of the population was 48.1% male and 51.9% female. The population was made up of 1,437 Swiss men (40.3% of the population) and 278 (7.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,626 Swiss women (45.6%) and 227 (6.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 766 or about 22.5% were born in Langendorf and lived there in 2000. There were 1,206 or 35.5% who were born in the same canton, while 889 or 26.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 417 or 12.3% were born outside  of Switzerland. In there were 23 live births to Swiss citizens and 5 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 40 deaths of Swiss citizens and 3 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 17 while the foreign population increased by 2. There were 11 Swiss men and 6 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 9 non-Swiss men and 6 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all  sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 16 and the non-Swiss population increased by 8 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.7%. The age distribution, , in Langendorf is; 238 children or 7.0% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 464 teenagers or 13.6% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 181 people or 5.3% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 969 people or 28.5% are between 25 and 44, and 846 people or 24.9% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is  500 people or 14.7% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 202 people or 5.9% who are over 80. , there were 1,304 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,655 married individuals, 248 widows or widowers and 193 individuals who are divorced. , there were 1,514 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 520 households that consist of only one person and 62 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,539 households that answered this question, 33.8% were  households made up of just one person and there were 13 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 486 married couples without children, 392 married couples with children There were 89 single parents with a child or children. There were 14 households that were made up of unrelated people and 25 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. The historical population is given in the following chart: Politics. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 25.65% of the vote . The next three most popular parties were the SP (23.89%), the CVP (18.13%) and the SVP (18.08%). In the federal election, a total of 1,358 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 53.2%. Economy. , Langendorf had an unemployment rate of 2.5%. , there were 6 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 310 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 24 businesses in this sector. 1,312 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 96 businesses in this sector. There were 1,732 residents of the municipality who were employed  in some capacity, of which females made up 44.0% of the workforce. , there were 861 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,399 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 19.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 52.8% used a private car. Religion. From the , 1,291 or 38.0% were Roman Catholic, while 1,263 or 37.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 31 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.91 % of the population), there were 25 individuals (or about 0.74% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 57 individuals (or about 1.68% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who were Jewish, and 83 (or about 2.44% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 558 (or about 16.41% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 86 individuals (or about 2.53% of the population ) did not answer the question. Education. In Langendorf about 1,434 or (42.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 507 or (14.9%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 507 who completed tertiary schooling, 67.7% were Swiss men, 21.5% were Swiss women, 8.1% were non-Swiss men and 2.8% were non-Swiss women. During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 232 students in the Langendorf school system. The education system in the Canton of Solothurn allows young children to attend two years of non-obligatory Kindergarten. During  that school year, there were 57 children in kindergarten. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In the municipality there were 167 students in primary school and 8 students in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower secondary students from Langendorf attend their school in a neighboring municipality. , there were 221 students in Langendorf who came from another municipality, while 113 residents  attended schools outside the municipality.