Obergerlafingen

Obergerlafingen is first mentioned in 1278 as Oburgeroluingen. ==Geography==

Obergerlafingen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 48.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 19.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 32.2% is settled (buildings or roads). Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 21.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.9%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 35.5% is used for growing crops and 10.5% is pastures, while 2.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. The municipality is located in the Wasseramt district, between the Emme and Oesch rivers. It consists of the linear village of Obergerlafingen. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules three Mullets Argent in pale. ==Demographics==

Obergerlafingen has a population () of . , 7.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -1.4%. It has changed at a rate of 2.7% due to migration and at a rate of -1.8% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks German (1,017 or 97.1%), with Italian being second most common (13 or 1.2%) and French being third (8 or 0.8%). Of the population in the municipality 278 or about 26.6% were born in Obergerlafingen and lived there in 2000. There were 347 or 33.1% who were born in the same canton, while 311 or 29.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 71 or 6.8% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 378 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 567 married individuals, 52 widows or widowers and 50 individuals who are divorced. , there were 441 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. there were 474 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 149. There were 8 single room apartments and 216 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 435 apartments (91.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 27 apartments (5.7%) were seasonally occupied and 12 apartments (2.5%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1100 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:136 text:"136" bar:1860 from:start till:137 text:"137" bar:1870 from:start till:150 text:"150" bar:1880 from:start till:185 text:"185" bar:1888 from:start till:210 text:"210" bar:1900 from:start till:378 text:"378" bar:1910 from:start till:465 text:"465" bar:1920 from:start till:565 text:"565" bar:1930 from:start till:572 text:"572" bar:1941 from:start till:563 text:"563" bar:1950 from:start till:659 text:"659" bar:1960 from:start till:788 text:"788" bar:1970 from:start till:888 text:"888" bar:1980 from:start till:932 text:"932" bar:1990 from:start till:999 text:"999" bar:2000 from:start till:1047 text:"1,047" ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 33.36% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (24.97%), the FDP (20.03%) and the CVP (11.23%). In the federal election, a total of 392 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.4%. ==Economy==

, Obergerlafingen had an unemployment rate of 2.6%. , there were 5 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 202 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 21 businesses in this sector. 134 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 36 businesses in this sector. , there were 158 workers who commuted into the municipality and 469 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 65.1% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 297 or 28.4% were Roman Catholic, while 520 or 49.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 6 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.57% of the population), there were 5 individuals (or about 0.48% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 11 individuals (or about 1.05% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 person who was Buddhist and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 187 (or about 17.86% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 19 individuals (or about 1.81% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Obergerlafingen about 512 or (48.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 98 or (9.4%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 98 who completed tertiary schooling, 80.6% were Swiss men, 14.3% were Swiss women. , there were 2 students in Obergerlafingen who came from another municipality, while 66 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==