Bellach
Bellach is a municipality in the district of Lebern in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. History. Bellach is first mentioned in 1294 as "Bella". In 1307 it was mentioned as "Bellacho". Geography. Bellach has an area, , of . Of this area, or 47.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 14.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 33.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 4.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 5.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up  16.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 9.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.5% of the area Out of the forested land, 12.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 35.1% is used for growing crops and 10.6% is pastures, while 1.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.8% is in lakes and 3.4% is in rivers and streams. The municipality is located in the Lebern district, in the southern  foothills of the Jura Mountains, west of Solothurn. It consists of the former villages of Ober-Bellach, Nieder-Bellach and Gärisch, which have all grown together. 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. Bellacher Weiher is a pond and nature preserve in the municipality. Coat of arms. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Azure a Horse Argent rampant and harnessed." Demographics. Bellach has a population () of . , 26.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over  the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -0.9%. Most of the population () speaks German (4,191 or 83.4%), with Italian being second most common (210 or 4.2%) and Turkish being third (185 or 3.7%). There are 46 people who speak French and 3 people who speak Romansh. , the gender distribution of the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 1,831 Swiss men (35.7% of the population) and 725 (14.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,933 Swiss women (37.7%) and 642 (12.5%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the  municipality 1,236 or about 24.6% were born in Bellach and lived there in 2000. There were 1,534 or 30.5% who were born in the same canton, while 1,083 or 21.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,061 or 21.1% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 24 live births to Swiss citizens and 12 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 16 while the foreign population increased by 9. There were  7 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland and 4 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 16 non-Swiss men and 7 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 a decrease of 36 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 12 people. This represents a population growth rate of -0.9%. The age distribution, , in Bellach is; 370 children or 7.4% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 842 teenagers or 16.7 % are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 264 people or 5.3% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 1,469 people or 29.2% are between 25 and 44, and 1,339 people or 26.6% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 598 people or 11.9% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 145 people or 2.9% who are over 80. , there were 1,913 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,566 married individuals, 272 widows or widowers and 276 individuals who are divorced . , there were 2,092 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 611 households that consist of only one person and 134 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 2,116 households that answered this question, 28.9% were households made up of just one person and there were 16 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 656 married couples without children, 685 married couples with children There were 106 single parents with a child or children. There were 18 households that were made up  of unrelated people and 24 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 SVP which received 31.21% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (23.29%), the CVP (18.51%) and the SP (17.04%). In the federal election, a total of 1,625 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 50.8%. Economy. , Bellach had an unemployment rate of 4.6%. , there were 44 people employed in the primary economic sector and  about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 1,332 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 58 businesses in this sector. 851 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 127 businesses in this sector. There were 2,629 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.1% of the workforce. , there were 1,394 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,955 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 16.9% used public  transportation to get to work, and 55.5% used a private car. Religion. From the , 1,926 or 38.3% were Roman Catholic, while 1,559 or 31.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 63 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.25% of the population), there were 15 individuals (or about 0.30% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 84 individuals (or about 1.67% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 448 (or about 8.91% of the population) who  were Islamic. There were 7 individuals who were Buddhist, 18 individuals who were Hindu and 6 individuals who belonged to another church. 741 (or about 14.74% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 159 individuals (or about 3.16% of the population) did not answer the question. Education. In Bellach about 1,959 or (39.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 500 or (9.9%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 500 who completed tertiary schooling, 68.4% were Swiss men, 18.0% were Swiss women, 10.6% were non -Swiss men and 3.0% were non-Swiss women. , there were 82 students in Bellach who came from another municipality, while 240 residents attended schools outside the municipality.