Oberthal, Switzerland

Oberthal is first mentioned in 1275 as mons Obertal. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is the ruins of a castle on the Chnubel spur. However, no records of the castle have survived and nothing is known about it. The scattered villages and farms had a number of landlords including the Counts of Kyburg and the Herrschaft of Signau. In 1529, Bern gained control over the entire valley and made it part of the new district of Signau. It was part of the parish of Grosshöchstetten. Beginning in the 19th century, many of the local farmers switched from raising grain and crops for local use to raising cattle for milk and cheese. To support the new dairy farmers a total of five dairies were built in the valley. However, a lack of jobs led to population decline as residents left for jobs in the growing cities and towns. Today about half of all jobs in the municipality are in agriculture. Additionally, over half of all residents commute to jobs in Bern or surrounding towns. ==Geography==

Oberthal has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 63.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 32.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.4% is settled (buildings or roads). During the same year, housing and buildings made up 3.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.1%. Out of the forested land, 30.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 20.4% is used for growing crops and 41.5% is pastures, while 1.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent seven Mullets of Five, three and four, and a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert. ==Demographics==

Oberthal has a population () of . , 1.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001–2011) the population has changed at a rate of -1.5%. Migration accounted for 0.1%, while births and deaths accounted for -1.3%. Most of the population () speaks German (795 or 99.4%) as their first language, French is the second most common (2 or 0.3%) and English is the third (2 or 0.3%). Of the population in the municipality, 407 or about 50.9% were born in Oberthal and lived there in 2000. There were 307 or 38.4% who were born in the same canton, while 47 or 5.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 20 or 2.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 91 households that consist of only one person and 43 households with five or more people. , a total of 284 apartments (88.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 28 apartments (8.7%) were seasonally occupied and 10 apartments (3.1%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.8 new units per 1000 residents. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:35 bottom:20 right:35 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: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:595 text:"595" bar:1850 from:start till:1089 text:"1,089" bar:1860 from:start till:1019 text:"1,019" bar:1870 from:start till:1039 text:"1,039" bar:1880 from:start till:946 text:"946" bar:1888 from:start till:924 text:"924" bar:1900 from:start till:866 text:"866" bar:1910 from:start till:886 text:"886" bar:1920 from:start till:867 text:"867" bar:1930 from:start till:826 text:"826" bar:1941 from:start till:828 text:"828" bar:1950 from:start till:880 text:"880" bar:1960 from:start till:833 text:"833" bar:1970 from:start till:797 text:"797" bar:1980 from:start till:817 text:"817" bar:1990 from:start till:852 text:"852" bar:2000 from:start till:800 text:"800" ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election, the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 43.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (27.6%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (5.5%) and the Green Party (4.5%). In the federal election, a total of 324 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 51.6%. ==Economy==

, Oberthal had an unemployment rate of 0.89%. , there were a total of 357 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 181 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 63 businesses involved in this sector. 78 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 11 businesses in this sector. 98 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 7 businesses in this sector. , there were 58 workers who commuted into the municipality and 245 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 14% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.1% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 692 or 86.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 25 or 3.1% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 53 individuals (or about 6.63% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islamic. 34 (or about 4.25% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 21 individuals (or about 2.63% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Oberthal, about 280 or (35.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 79 or (9.9%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 79 who completed tertiary schooling, 77.2% were Swiss men, 20.3% were Swiss women. During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 70 students attending classes in Oberthal. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 21 students in the municipality. The municipality had 2 primary classes and 35 students. During the same year, there was one lower secondary class with a total of 14 students. , there were 5 students in Oberthal who came from another municipality, while 37 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==