Grossaffoltern is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is known for its stork colony.

History

thumb|left|Hauert's fertilizer factory around 1960

Grossaffoltern is first mentioned in 1216 as Affoltron.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 49.0% is used for growing crops and 11.8% is pastures, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

Demographics

thumb|Grossaffoltern municipal building

thumb|Farm house near the village

Grossaffoltern has a population () of . , 4.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of -0.2%. Migration accounted for 0.3%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.8%.

Most of the population () speaks German (2,700 or 96.4%) as their first language, French is the second most common (23 or 0.8%) and English is the third (16 or 0.6%). There are 12 people who speak Italian. Of the population in the municipality, 846 or about 30.2% were born in Grossaffoltern and lived there in 2000. There were 1,283 or 45.8% who were born in the same canton, while 413 or 14.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 169 or 6.0% were born outside of Switzerland.

, there were 1,105 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.8 new units per 1000 residents.

<timeline>

Colors=

id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)

id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)

ImageSize = width:1020 height:210

PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100

AlignBars = justify

DateFormat = x.y

Period = from:0 till:2800

TimeAxis = orientation:vertical

AlignBars = justify

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:600 start:0

ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:120 start:0

PlotData=

color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center

bar:1764 from:start till:785 text:"785"

bar:1850 from:start till:1722 text:"1,722"

bar:1860 from:start till:1705 text:"1,705"

bar:1870 from:start till:1594 text:"1,594"

bar:1880 from:start till:1720 text:"1,720"

bar:1888 from:start till:1670 text:"1,670"

bar:1900 from:start till:1818 text:"1,818"

bar:1910 from:start till:1847 text:"1,847"

bar:1920 from:start till:1884 text:"1,884"

bar:1930 from:start till:1922 text:"1,922"

bar:1941 from:start till:1957 text:"1,957"

bar:1950 from:start till:2007 text:"2,007"

bar:1960 from:start till:2063 text:"2,063"

bar:1970 from:start till:2229 text:"2,229"

bar:1980 from:start till:2235 text:"2,235"

bar:1990 from:start till:2419 text:"2,419"

bar:2000 from:start till:2800 text:"2,800"

</timeline>

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 37.49% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (21.18%), the FDP (14.37%) and the Green Party (12.78%). In the federal election, a total of 1,053 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.1%.

Economy

thumb|Gasthaus Traube in Grossaffoltern

, Grossaffoltern had an unemployment rate of 0.8%. , there were 182 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 61 businesses involved in this sector. 165 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 34 businesses in this sector. 211 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 63 businesses in this sector.

, there were 153 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,118 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 7.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 16.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.9% used a private car.

Religion

thumb|upright|Village Swiss Reformed church

From the , 2,191 or 78.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 248 or 8.9% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 11 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.39% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.07% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 144 individuals (or about 5.14% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 13 (or about 0.46% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 3 individuals who were Hindu. 187 (or about 6.68% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 72 individuals (or about 2.57% of the population) did not answer the question.

During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 226 students attending classes in Grossaffoltern. There were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 48 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 10.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 2.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 9 primary classes and 178 students. Of the primary students, 5.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 12.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. , there were 4 students in Grossaffoltern who came from another municipality, while 167 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

  • Official Website of the municipality