Laufen (French: Laufon ; High Alemannic: Laufe) is a municipality and the capital of the district of Laufen in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.
Laufen is a principal train station for the surrounding area, connecting it to Basel.
History
Between 58 BC and 470 AD, Laufen was part of the Roman Empire; after the empire collapsed it was part of the Alemanish area for several decades. During the early sixth century, the entire valley came into the possession of France, and from 853 until 1033 it was part of the Burgundian Kingdom. In 999 Rudolf III, the childless king of Burgundy donated most of the Laufen valley territory to the Archbishopric of Basel.
Laufen is first mentioned in 1141 as Loufen. For a time, it was known by its French name Laufon. In 1295 founded the small town of Laufen.
Geography
Laufen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 27.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 52.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 18.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.5% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 8.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 51.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 18.7% is used for growing crops and 7.7% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is the capital of the Laufen district. It consists of the old city of Laufen, within the city walls, the settlement outside the walls by the waterfall and since the 20th Century, settlements on both sides of the Birs river. The old city and the settlement outside the walls merged in 1852.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Sable, a Crozier Argent.
Demographics
Laufen has a population () of . , 22.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 10.8%.
Most of the population () speaks German (4,020 or 82.8%), with Italian language being second most common (333 or 6.9%) and Spanish being third (125 or 2.6%). There are 72 people who speak French and 4 people who speak Romansh.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.4% male and 50.6% female. The population was made up of 4,016 Swiss citizens (76.2% of the population), and 1,252 non-Swiss residents (23.8%) Of the population in the municipality 1,553 or about 32.0% were born in Laufen and lived there in 2000. There were 794 or 16.3% who were born in the same canton, while 1,339 or 27.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,005 or 20.7% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 35 live births to Swiss citizens and 11 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 38 deaths of Swiss citizens and 5 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 3 while the foreign population increased by 6. There were 12 Swiss men and 7 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 14 non-Swiss men and 24 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 13 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 12 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.0%.
The age distribution, , in Laufen is; 338 children or 6.4% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 747 teenagers or 14.2% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 714 people or 13.6% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 688 people or 13.1% are between 30 and 39, 902 people or 17.1% are between 40 and 49, and 987 people or 18.7% are between 50 and 64. The senior population distribution is 657 people or 12.5% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 235 people or 4.5% who are over 80.
, there were 2,081 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,234 married individuals, 301 widows or widowers and 241 individuals who are divorced.