Welschenrohr (French: Rosières) is a former municipality in the district of Thal in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. On 1 January 2021 the former municipalities of Gänsbrunnen and Welschenrohr merged to form the new municipality of Welschenrohr-Gänsbrunnen.
History
Welschenrohr is first mentioned in 1179 as Rore. An important watch manufacturing place up to the 1960s, its economy was heavily affected by the late 1960s watch crisis. Now, its economy specializes in fine mechanics.
Geography
thumb|left|Welschenrohr
thumb|Aerial view (1962)
Welschenrohr had an area, , of . Of this area, or 35.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 58.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.8% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, 56.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 7.3% is used for growing crops and 24.1% is pastures and 3.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
Demographics
thumb|Gasthof Kreuz in Welschenrohr
thumb|Fluh mountains at Welschenrohr
thumb|Wastewater treatment plant of Welschenrohr
Welschenrohr had a population (as of 2019) of 1,076. , 6.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -6.3%. Over the same time period the population has changed at a rate of -4.7% due to migration and at a rate of -3.5% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks German (1,105 or 94.4%), with Albanian being second most common (18 or 1.5%) and French being third (10 or 0.9%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh. Of the population in the municipality 616 or about 52.6% were born in Welschenrohr and lived there in 2000. There were 179 or 15.3% who were born in the same canton, while 227 or 19.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 101 or 8.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
, there were 458 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 579 married individuals, 91 widows or widowers and 43 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 471 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.
there were 539 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 163. There were 9 single room apartments and 213 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 460 apartments (85.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 28 apartments (5.2%) were seasonally occupied and 51 apartments (9.5%) were empty.
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Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 29.71% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (28.7%), the FDP (25.44%) and the SP (10.33%). In the federal election, a total of 472 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 54.3%.
Economy
, Welschenrohr had an unemployment rate of 3.6%. , there were 44 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 182 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 16 businesses in this sector. 115 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 24 businesses in this sector.
, there were 124 workers who commuted into the municipality and 274 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 15.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 42.6% used a private car. During that school year, there were 21 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 86 students in primary school. 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 Welschenrohr attend their school in a neighboring municipality.
, there were 16 students in Welschenrohr who came from another municipality, while 66 residents attended schools outside the municipality.