Waldenburg, Switzerland

Waldenburg has an area, , of . Of this area, or 31.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 62.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 60.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 16.4% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops and 13.6% is used for alpine pastures. ==Coat of arms==

The municipal coat of arms was introduced in 1926; it is that of the counts of Frohburg, who owned the village at the time of its first mention (1244); its blazon is Or, an Eagle displayed Vair, langued, beaked and membered Gules. ==Demographics==

Waldenburg has a population () of . , 27.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -9.8%. Most of the population () speaks German (1,067 or 80.3%), with Albanian being second most common (104 or 7.8%) and Italian being third (56 or 4.2%). There are 5 people who speak French and 1 person who speaks Romansh. , there were 561 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 624 married individuals, 76 widows or widowers and 67 individuals who are divorced. , there were 523 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. there were 577 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 164. There were 12 single room apartments and 182 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 504 apartments (87.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 40 apartments (6.9%) were seasonally occupied and 33 apartments (5.7%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.51%. 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:1500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:756 text:"756" bar:1860 from:start till:908 text:"908" bar:1870 from:start till:872 text:"872" bar:1880 from:start till:870 text:"870" bar:1888 from:start till:981 text:"981" bar:1900 from:start till:1055 text:"1,055" bar:1910 from:start till:1027 text:"1,027" bar:1920 from:start till:1028 text:"1,028" bar:1930 from:start till:1038 text:"1,038" bar:1941 from:start till:1079 text:"1,079" bar:1950 from:start till:1224 text:"1,224" bar:1960 from:start till:1284 text:"1,284" bar:1970 from:start till:1449 text:"1,449" bar:1980 from:start till:1188 text:"1,188" bar:1990 from:start till:1208 text:"1,208" bar:2000 from:start till:1328 text:"1,328" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The prehistoric hill settlement and medieval government center of Gerstelfluh and the villa Gedeon Thommen with park are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire old village of Waldenburg is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 39.66% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (18.52%), the Green Party (16.47%) and the FDP (15.14%). In the federal election, a total of 282 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 38.7%. ==Economy==

, Waldenburg had an unemployment rate of 4.5%. , there were 37 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 445 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 14 businesses in this sector. 160 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 36 businesses in this sector. , there were 520 workers who commuted into the municipality and 458 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.1 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 6.0% of the workforce coming into Waldenburg are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 23.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 45.9% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 275 or 20.7% were Roman Catholic, while 613 or 46.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 27 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.03% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 11 individuals (or about 0.83% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 200 (or about 15.06% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist, 2 individuals who were Hindu and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 158 (or about 11.90% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 37 individuals (or about 2.79% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Weather==

Waldenburg has an average of 140.4 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is June during which time Waldenburg receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 12.9 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 13.9, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is October with an average of of precipitation over 9 days. ==Education==

In Waldenburg about 469 or (35.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 130 or (9.8%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 130 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.2% were Swiss men, 22.3% were Swiss women, 14.6% were non-Swiss men and 6.9% were non-Swiss women. , there were 18 students in Waldenburg who came from another municipality, while 96 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==Transport==

Waldenburg is the terminus of the Waldenburg narrow gauge railway, which operates a quarter-hourly train service to Liestal. At Liestal railway station, onward connection is made with the Swiss Federal Railway's services to Basel, Bern, Lucerne and Zürich. ==References==