Lostorf

Lostorf is first mentioned around 1145-53 as de Loztorf. ==Geography==

near Lostorf Lostorf has an area, , of . Of this area, or 37.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 48.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 13.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.7%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 47.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 15.2% is used for growing crops and 17.7% is pastures and 4.1% is used for alpine pastures. The municipality is located in the Gösgen district, near the base of Dottenberg and Reitifluh Mountains. It consists of the village of Lostorf and the hamlets of Mahren and Bad Lostorf. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or three Roses Gules barbed and seeded proper, slipped and leaved Vert issuant from a Mount of 3 Coupeaux of the last. ==Demographics==

Lostorf has a population () of . , 8.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 10.2%. Most of the population () speaks German (3,289 or 94.6%), with Italian being second most common (42 or 1.2%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (22 or 0.6%). There are 12 people who speak French and 3 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality 990 or about 28.5% were born in Lostorf and lived there in 2000. There were 974 or 28.0% who were born in the same canton, while 1,089 or 31.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 346 or 10.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 1,373 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,835 married individuals, 138 widows or widowers and 131 individuals who are divorced. , there were 1,339 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. there were 1,472 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 404. There were 70 single-room apartments and 713 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,310 apartments (89.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 108 apartments (7.3%) were seasonally occupied and 54 apartments (3.7%) 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:3500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:700 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:140 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1739 from:start till:596 text:"596" bar:1804 from:start till:707 text:"707" bar:1850 from:start till:1096 text:"1,096" bar:1860 from:start till:1034 text:"1,034" bar:1870 from:start till:1100 text:"1,100" bar:1880 from:start till:1217 text:"1,217" bar:1888 from:start till:1244 text:"1,244" bar:1900 from:start till:1247 text:"1,247" bar:1910 from:start till:1310 text:"1,310" bar:1920 from:start till:1374 text:"1,374" bar:1930 from:start till:1420 text:"1,420" bar:1941 from:start till:1384 text:"1,384" bar:1950 from:start till:1474 text:"1,474" bar:1960 from:start till:1554 text:"1,554" bar:1970 from:start till:2053 text:"2,053" bar:1980 from:start till:2378 text:"2,378" bar:1990 from:start till:2927 text:"2,927" bar:2000 from:start till:3477 text:"3,477" ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 28.96% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (24.5%), the SP (19.56%) and the CVP (17.48%). In the federal election, a total of 1,533 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 57.6%. ==Economy==

, Lostorf had an unemployment rate of 1.8%. , there were 93 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 27 businesses involved in this sector. 179 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 32 businesses in this sector. 526 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 96 businesses in this sector. , there were 340 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,378 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 14.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 64.7% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 1,577 or 45.4% were Roman Catholic, while 1,081 or 31.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 26 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.75% of the population), there were 33 individuals (or about 0.95% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 87 individuals (or about 2.50% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who were Jewish, and 58 (or about 1.67% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 12 individuals who were Buddhist and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 518 (or about 14.90% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 81 individuals (or about 2.33% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Lostorf about 1,480 or (42.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 503 or (14.5%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 503 who completed tertiary schooling, 72.0% were Swiss men, 20.1% were Swiss women, 6.8% were non-Swiss men and 1.2% were non-Swiss women. During that school year, there were 79 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 262 students in primary school and 7 students in the special, smaller classes. 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 Lostorf attend their school in a neighboring municipality. , there were 57 students in Lostorf who came from another municipality, while 254 residents attended schools outside the municipality. • Paul Sahli, juggler ==References==