Hindelbank

Hindelbank is first mentioned in 1275 as Hundelwanc. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a La Tène cemetery. Politically and judicially, the village of Mötschwil, Schleumen and Grüt were part of the village of Alchenflüh. However, they were part of the parish of Hindelbank and part of the military district of Zollikofen. In 1331 Fraubrunnen Abbey became one of the large land owners in the villages. Starting in 1804, Mötschwil Lyssach and Rohrmoos (part of the Oberburg municipality) formed a school district. They built a school in the settlement of Kreuzweg in 1806. Despite being located close to the railroad stations of Hindelbank and Lyssach the municipality remained largely rural and agricultural. ==Geography==

(1922) Hindelbank has an area of . Of this area, or 60.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 22.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 16.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 5.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 51.4% is used for growing crops and 8.9% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Hind Argent statant on a Base Or. ==Demographics==

Hindelbank has a population () of . , 7.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 7.2%. Migration accounted for 0.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 3.5%. Most of the population () speaks German (1,857 or 92.9%) as their first language, French is the second most common (23 or 1.2%) and Portuguese is the third (17 or 0.9%). There are 12 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh. , there were 236 households that consist of only one person and 50 households with five or more people. , a total of 784 apartments (92.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 41 apartments (4.8%) were seasonally occupied and 23 apartments (2.7%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 1 new units per 1000 residents. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:2000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:400 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:80 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:328 text:"328" bar:1850 from:start till:651 text:"651" bar:1860 from:start till:724 text:"724" bar:1870 from:start till:1054 text:"1,054" bar:1880 from:start till:1124 text:"1,124" bar:1888 from:start till:1122 text:"1,122" bar:1900 from:start till:1006 text:"1,006" bar:1910 from:start till:988 text:"988" bar:1920 from:start till:1022 text:"1,022" bar:1930 from:start till:1020 text:"1,020" bar:1941 from:start till:1048 text:"1,048" bar:1950 from:start till:1162 text:"1,162" bar:1960 from:start till:1221 text:"1,221" bar:1970 from:start till:1519 text:"1,519" bar:1980 from:start till:1819 text:"1,819" bar:1990 from:start till:1970 text:"1,970" bar:2000 from:start till:2000 text:"2,000" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The church, the rectory and Hindelbank Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The grounds and land surrounding the castle and the hamlet of Mötschwil are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. File:Hindelbank Kirche1.jpg|Hindelbank village church File:Hindelbank Pfarrhaus von Nord.jpg|Hindelbank rectory File:Castle Hindelbank outdoor.JPG|Hindelbank Castle ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 33.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (19%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (14.8%) and the Green Party (6.2%). In the federal election, a total of 760 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.7%. ==Economy==

, Hindelbank had an unemployment rate of 2.18%. , there were a total of 820 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 57 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 17 businesses involved in this sector. 172 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 24 businesses in this sector. 591 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 81 businesses in this sector. , there were 444 workers who commuted into the municipality and 780 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 20.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 49.4% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 208 or 10.4% were Roman Catholic, while 1,448 or 72.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 17 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.85% of the population), and there were 180 individuals (or about 9.00% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 individuals (or about 0.30% of the population) who were Jewish, and 51 (or about 2.55% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 7 individuals who were Buddhist, 13 individuals who were Hindu and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 104 (or about 5.20% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 54 individuals (or about 2.70% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Hindelbank about 864 or (43.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 250 or (12.5%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 250 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.2% were Swiss men, 18.4% were Swiss women, 4.0% were non-Swiss men and 4.4% were non-Swiss women. During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 350 students attending classes in Hindelbank. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 37 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 2.7% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 6 primary classes and 126 students. Of the primary students, 17.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 13.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 11 lower secondary classes with a total of 187 students. There were 7.0% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language. , there were 111 students in Hindelbank who came from another municipality, while 54 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==Transportation==

The municipality has a railway station, , on the Olten–Bern line. It has regular service to , , , , and . ==References==