Blauen, Basel-Landschaft
Blauen is a municipality in the district of Laufen in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. History. Blauen is first mentioned in 1147 as "Blakwan". Geography. Blauen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 33.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 60.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.3% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.5%. Out of the forested land, 58.6% of the total land area is heavily forested  and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 12.9% is used for growing crops and 12.9% is pastures, while 2.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 5.5% is used for alpine pastures. The municipality is located in the Laufen district, on the southern slope of the Blauen mountains. Coat of arms. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Or, a Bar Sable, in chief a Mullet of the same." Demographics. Blauen has a population () of . , 4.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007 ) the population has changed at a rate of 4.2%. Most of the population () speaks German (641 or 97.1%), with French being second most common (10 or 1.5%) and Finnish being third (2 or 0.3%). , the gender distribution of the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. The population was made up of 650 Swiss citizens (94.2% of the population), and 40 non-Swiss residents (5.8%) Of the population in the municipality 276 or about 41.8% were born in Blauen and lived there in 2000. There were 141 or 21.4% who were born in the same canton, while 188 or 28.5 % were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 54 or 8.2% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 9 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population increased by 1. There were 2 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there was 1 non-Swiss man and 1 non-Swiss woman 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 12 and the non-Swiss population remained the same. This represents a population growth rate of 1.8%. The age distribution, , in Blauen is; 36 children or 5.2% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 100 teenagers or 14.5% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 71 people or 10.3% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 94 people or 13.6% are between 30 and 39, 111 people or 16.1% are between 40 and 49, and 169 people or  24.5% are between 50 and 64. The senior population distribution is 92 people or 13.3% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 17 people or 2.5% who are over 80. , there were 266 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 345 married individuals, 25 widows or widowers and 24 individuals who are divorced. , there were 241 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 41 households that consist of only one person and 23 households with five or more people. Out of  a total of 241 households that answered this question, 17.0% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 82 married couples without children, 103 married couples with children There were 12 single parents with a child or children. There were 3 households that were made up unrelated people. The historical population is given in the following chart: Politics. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 34.46% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (24.82%), the Green Party (13.71%) and the  SP (13.56%). In the federal election, a total of 296 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 55.0%. Economy. , Blauen had an unemployment rate of 2.68%. , there were 22 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 70 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 7 businesses in this sector. 35 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 13 businesses in this sector. There were 350 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.7% of the workforce. , there were 80  workers who commuted into the municipality and 282 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 13.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 67.7% used a private car. Religion. From the , 433 or 65.6% were Roman Catholic, while 120 or 18.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, and there were 14 individuals (or about 2.12% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islamic. There were  1 individuals who were Buddhist and 89 (or about 13.48% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 2 individuals (or about 0.30% of the population) did not answer the question. Education. In Blauen about 279 or (42.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 78 or (11.8%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 78 who completed tertiary schooling, 70.5% were Swiss men, 17.9% were Swiss women, 10.3% were non-Swiss men. , there were 2 students in Blauen who came from another municipality, while 69 residents  attended schools outside the municipality.