Waldenburg, Switzerland
Waldenburg is a municipality in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland, and the capital of the district of the same name. Geography. Waldenburg has an area, , of . Of this area, or 31.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 62.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 60.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with  orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 16.4% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops and 13.6% is used for alpine pastures. Coat of arms. The municipal coat of arms was introduced in 1926; it is that of the counts of Frohburg, who owned the village at the time of its first mention (1244); its blazon is "Or, an Eagle displayed Vair, langued, beaked and membered Gules." Demographics. Waldenburg has a population () of . , 27.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years  (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -9.8%. Most of the population () speaks German (1,067 or 80.3%), with Albanian being second most common (104 or 7.8%) and Italian being third (56 or 4.2%). There are 5 people who speak French and 1 person who speaks Romansh. , the gender distribution of the population was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. The population was made up of 881 Swiss citizens (72.9% of the population), and 327 non-Swiss residents (27.1%) Of the population in the municipality 363 or about 27.3% were born in Waldenburg and lived there in 2000. There were  304 or 22.9% who were born in the same canton, while 291 or 21.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 328 or 24.7% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 8 live births to Swiss citizens and 5 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 10 deaths of Swiss citizens and 3 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 2 while the foreign population increased by 2. There was 1 Swiss man who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 9 non-Swiss  men and 8 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 1 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 5 people. This represents a population growth rate of -0.5%. The age distribution, , in Waldenburg is; 78 children or 6.5% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 208 teenagers or 17.2% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 159 people or 13.2% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 129 people  or 10.7% are between 30 and 39, 216 people or 17.9% are between 40 and 49, and 240 people or 19.9% are between 50 and 64. The senior population distribution is 112 people or 9.3% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 66 people or 5.5% who are over 80. , there were 561 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 624 married individuals, 76 widows or widowers and 67 individuals who are divorced. , there were 523 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household . There were 163 households that consist of only one person and 69 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 533 households that answered this question, 30.6% were households made up of just one person and 5 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 150 married couples without children, 165 married couples with children There were 33 single parents with a child or children. There were 7 households that were made up unrelated people and 10 households that were made some sort of institution or another collective housing. The  historical population is given in the following chart: Heritage sites of national significance. The prehistoric hill settlement and medieval government center of Gerstelfluh and the villa "Gedeon Thommen" with park are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire old village of Waldenburg is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. Politics. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 39.66% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (18.52%), the Green Party (16.47%) and the FDP (15.14%). In the federal election, a total of 282 votes  were cast, and the voter turnout was 38.7%. Economy. , Waldenburg had an unemployment rate of 4.5%. , there were 37 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 445 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 14 businesses in this sector. 160 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 36 businesses in this sector. There were 675 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.3% of the workforce. , there were 520 workers who commuted into the municipality and 458 workers who commuted  away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.1 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 6.0% of the workforce coming into Waldenburg are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 23.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 45.9% used a private car. Religion. From the , 275 or 20.7% were Roman Catholic, while 613 or 46.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 27 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.03% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic  Church, and there were 11 individuals (or about 0.83% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 200 (or about 15.06% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist, 2 individuals who were Hindu and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 158 (or about 11.90% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 37 individuals (or about 2.79% of the population) did not answer the question. Weather. Waldenburg has an average of 140.4 days of rain or snow per year and  on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is June during which time Waldenburg receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 12.9 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 13.9, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is October with an average of of precipitation over 9 days. Education. In Waldenburg about 469 or (35.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 130 or (9.8%) have completed additional higher education (either  university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 130 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.2% were Swiss men, 22.3% were Swiss women, 14.6% were non-Swiss men and 6.9% were non-Swiss women. , there were 18 students in Waldenburg who came from another municipality, while 96 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Transport. Waldenburg is the terminus of the Waldenburg narrow gauge railway, which operates a half-hourly train service to the town of Liestal. At Liestal railway station, onward connection is made with the Swiss Federal Railway's services to Basel, Bern, Lucerne and Zürich.