Holderbank, Solothurn

Holderbank is first mentioned in 1226 as in villa Halderwane. ==Geography==

Holderbank has an area, , of . Of this area, or 44.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 49.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 47.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.2% is used for growing crops and 29.8% is pastures and 10.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Thal district, in a longitudinal valley between the first and second Jura mountain chains near the Oberer Hauenstein Pass. It consists of the linear village of Holderbank. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Tierced in bend Gules Argent and Sable, in the second a Letter H of the first. ==Demographics==

Holderbank has a population () of . , 9.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 3.4%. Most of the population () speaks German (561 or 95.2%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common (13 or 2.2%) and English being third (7 or 1.2%). There are 3 people who speak French. Of the population in the municipality 230 or about 39.0% were born in Holderbank and lived there in 2000. There were 106 or 18.0% who were born in the same canton, while 177 or 30.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 66 or 11.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 214 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 300 married individuals, 35 widows or widowers and 40 individuals who are divorced. , there were 260 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. there were 296 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 75. There were 6 single room apartments and 134 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 245 apartments (82.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 28 apartments (9.5%) were seasonally occupied and 23 apartments (7.8%) 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:680 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:167 text:"167" bar:1798 from:start till:370 text:"370" bar:1850 from:start till:602 text:"602" bar:1860 from:start till:671 text:"671" bar:1870 from:start till:590 text:"590" bar:1880 from:start till:566 text:"566" bar:1888 from:start till:498 text:"498" bar:1900 from:start till:525 text:"525" bar:1910 from:start till:629 text:"629" bar:1920 from:start till:602 text:"602" bar:1930 from:start till:574 text:"574" bar:1941 from:start till:578 text:"578" bar:1950 from:start till:596 text:"596" bar:1960 from:start till:625 text:"625" bar:1970 from:start till:623 text:"623" bar:1980 from:start till:570 text:"570" bar:1990 from:start till:608 text:"608" bar:2000 from:start till:589 text:"589" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The Ruin of Alt-Bechburg Castle is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 32.88% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (30.9%), the FDP (20.45%) and the Green Party (7.12%). In the federal election, a total of 260 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 53.5%. ==Economy==

, Holderbank had an unemployment rate of 2.7%. , there were 35 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 109 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 9 businesses in this sector. 65 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 17 businesses in this sector. , there were 88 workers who commuted into the municipality and 207 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, 10.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 63% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 318 or 54.0% were Roman Catholic, while 162 or 27.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 19 members of an Orthodox church (or about 3.23% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.34% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 5 individuals (or about 0.85% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 13 (or about 2.21% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 individual who belonged to another church. 60 (or about 10.19% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 9 individuals (or about 1.53% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Holderbank about 223 or (37.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 48 or (8.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 48 who completed tertiary schooling, 75.0% were Swiss men, 10.4% were Swiss women and 10.4% were non-Swiss women. , there were 54 students in Holderbank who came from another municipality, while 37 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==