Riedholz is a municipality in the district of Lebern in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. In 2011 Niederwil merged into Riedholz.
History
Riedholz is first mentioned in 1367 as im Rietholz. Niederwil is first mentioned in 1292 as Lomolzwile.
Geography
Following the merger, the new, larger municipality had an area () of . 43.6% was used for agricultural purposes and 39% was forested. Settlement areas took up 14.6% and the total unproductive area took up 2.8% of the total.
Riedholz had an area, before the merger in , of . Of this area, or 36.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 40.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 19.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 3.9% is either rivers or lakes.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 8.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.9%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.2% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 22.3% is used for growing crops and 12.7% is pastures, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the Lebern district, between a moraine and the Aare river. It consists of the village of Riedholz and Niederwil as well as scattered hamlets and individual settlements, including Attisholz which has had a thermal bath since the 15th Century.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or a Fir Tree eradicated Vert.
Demographics
Riedholz has a population () of . , 8.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 12.5%.
Most of the population () speaks German (1,427 or 95.8%), with Italian being second most common (12 or 0.8%) and Albanian being third (11 or 0.7%). There are 7 people who speak French and 2 people who speak Romansh.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.5% male and 50.5% female. The population was made up of 752 Swiss men (44.5% of the population) and 84 (5.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 777 Swiss women (46.0%) and 77 (4.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 374 or about 25.1% were born in Riedholz and lived there in 2000. There were 548 or 36.8% who were born in the same canton, while 374 or 25.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 164 or 11.0% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 10 live births to Swiss citizens and were 18 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 8 while the foreign population decreased by 1. There were 2 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland and 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 6 non-Swiss men and 2 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 an increase of 2 and the non-Swiss population increased by 8 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.6%.
The age distribution, , in Riedholz is; 89 children or 6.0% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 247 teenagers or 16.6% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 81 people or 5.4% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 419 people or 28.1% are between 25 and 44, and 406 people or 27.3% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 198 people or 13.3% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 49 people or 3.3% who are over 80.
, there were 585 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 762 married individuals, 80 widows or widowers and 62 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 757 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 166 households that consist of only one person and 48 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 622 households that answered this question, 26.7% were households made up of just one person and there were 7 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 211 married couples without children, 199 married couples with children There were 27 single parents with a child or children. There were 5 households that were made up of unrelated people and 7 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.