Herbetswil

Herbetswil is first mentioned in 1400 as Hebrechtzwilre. ==Geography==

Herbetswil has an area, , of . Of this area, or 34.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 61.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.5%. Out of the forested land, 58.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.0% is used for growing crops and 6.7% is pastures and 22.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Thal district, in the Dünnern river valley. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Herbetswil and the hamlets of Vorder and Hinter Hammer. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules an Angle Plate Sable. ==Demographics==

Herbetswil has a population () of . , 5.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -8.4%. Most of the population () speaks German (546 or 96.1%), with Albanian being second most common (5 or 0.9%) and Arabic being third (5 or 0.9%). There are 3 people who speak French. Of the population in the municipality 291 or about 51.2% were born in Herbetswil and lived there in 2000. There were 132 or 23.2% who were born in the same canton, while 102 or 18.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 39 or 6.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 227 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 293 married individuals, 31 widows or widowers and 17 individuals who are divorced. , there were 221 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. there were 246 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 68. There were 7 single room apartments and 101 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 212 apartments (86.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 13 apartments (5.3%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (8.5%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1080 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:660 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1739 from:start till:203 text:"203" bar:1798 from:start till:353 text:"353" bar:1850 from:start till:475 text:"475" bar:1860 from:start till:456 text:"456" bar:1870 from:start till:454 text:"454" bar:1880 from:start till:411 text:"411" bar:1888 from:start till:416 text:"416" bar:1900 from:start till:437 text:"437" bar:1910 from:start till:476 text:"476" bar:1920 from:start till:512 text:"512" bar:1930 from:start till:556 text:"556" bar:1941 from:start till:604 text:"604" bar:1950 from:start till:658 text:"658" bar:1960 from:start till:648 text:"648" bar:1970 from:start till:654 text:"654" bar:1980 from:start till:587 text:"587" bar:1990 from:start till:596 text:"596" bar:2000 from:start till:568 text:"568" ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 45.65% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (27.97%), the FDP (19.77%) and the Green Party (4.35%). In the federal election, a total of 236 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 54.6%. ==Economy==

, Herbetswil had an unemployment rate of 1.9%. , there were 46 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 19 businesses involved in this sector. 80 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 7 businesses in this sector. 32 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 11 businesses in this sector. , there were 80 workers who commuted into the municipality and 190 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 11.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 56.3% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 370 or 65.1% were Roman Catholic, while 131 or 23.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 11 individuals (or about 1.94% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 21 (or about 3.70% of the population) who were Islamic. 28 (or about 4.93% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 6 individuals (or about 1.06% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Weather==

Herbetswil has an average of 139.9 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is June during which time Herbetswil receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 13.1 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 13.7, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is September with an average of of precipitation over 9 days. ==Education==

In Herbetswil about 208 or (36.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 30 or (5.3%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 30 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.3% were Swiss men, 20.0% were Swiss women. During that school year, there were 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 43 students in primary school. 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 Herbetswil attend their school in a neighboring municipality. , there were 107 students in Herbetswil who came from another municipality, while 66 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==