Rüschegg is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is also a Swiss Reformed Church parish.
History
Rüschegg is first mentioned around 1417-28 as Ruesseg. Until 1860 Rüschegg was part of Guggisberg. The village church was built in 1813. In 1860, when it became an independent municipality, it also became its own parish. Until the early-20th century it was known as the poorest municipality in the Canton of Bern. With Federal and Cantonal support and rising tourism the local economy improved. Today there are several hotels, hiking trails and ski slopes in the municipality as well as a ropes course in the hamlet of Längeneybad. However, in 2000 about two-thirds of the working population commuted to jobs in Bern and surrounding cities.
Geography
Rüschegg has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 41.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 49.8% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 3.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 4.4% is unproductive land.
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 1.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. A total of 45.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 2.2% is used for growing crops and 11.5% is pasturage and 27.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 3.2% is unproductive vegetation and 1.1% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Alpenvorland between the Schwarzwassergraben (elevation ) and Ochsen peak (elevation ) which is part of the Stockhorn chain. The Ochsen, Bürglen () and Gantrisch (), form the southern border of the municipality. It includes the villages Heubach, Hirschhorn, Gambach and Graben.
The neighboring municipalities are Rüeggisberg, Rüti bei Riggisberg, Därstetten, Oberwil im Simmental, Guggisberg and Wahlern.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Schwarzenburg, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or a Lion Paw Sable issuant from chief sinister holding a Fir Tree Vert trunked and eradicated Gules.
Demographics
Rüschegg has a population () of . , 3.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last year (2010-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -0.1%. Migration accounted for -3.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.2%.
Most of the population () speaks German (1,585 or 97.4%) as their first language, English is the second most common (9 or 0.6%) and Albanian is the third (9 or 0.6%). There are 8 people who speak French, 2 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. The population was made up of 790 Swiss men (47.7% of the population) and 27 (1.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 818 Swiss women (49.4%) and 21 (1.3%) non-Swiss women.
Of the population in the municipality, 715 or about 43.9% were born in Rüschegg and lived there in 2000. There were 602 or 37.0% who were born in the same canton, while 178 or 10.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 93 or 5.7% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.5%.
, there were 670 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 777 married individuals, 117 widows or widowers and 64 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 222 households that consist of only one person and 46 households with five or more people. , a total of 610 apartments (67.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 225 apartments (25.0%) were seasonally occupied and 64 apartments (7.1%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 3.35%. In 2011, single family homes made up 51.5% of the total housing in the municipality.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
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 Social Democratic Party (SP) (13.8%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (13.3%) and the Green Party (8%). In the federal election, a total of 625 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 43.5%.