Balm bei Günsberg is a municipality in the district of Lebern in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.
Geography
Balm bei Günsberg has an area, , of . Of this area, or 32.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 62.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 2.2% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 58.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.6% is used for growing crops and 10.2% is pastures and 18.4% is used for alpine pastures.
The municipality is located in the Lebern district. It consists of several scattered groups of houses at the base of the Balmberg in the Jura Mountains.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules and Argent.
Demographics
Balm bei Günsberg has a population () of . , 6.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -11.2%.
Most of the population () speaks German (188 or 95.9%), with English being second most common (6 or 3.1%) and French being third (1 or 0.5%).
, the gender distribution of the population was 56.5% male and 43.5% female. The population was made up of 95 Swiss men (49.7% of the population) and 13 (6.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 78 Swiss women (40.8%) and 5 (2.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 58 or about 29.6% were born in Balm bei Günsberg and lived there in 2000. There were 66 or 33.7% who were born in the same canton, while 50 or 25.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 18 or 9.2% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there was 1 death of a Swiss citizen. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. There was 1 Swiss man who immigrated back to Switzerland and 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 2 non-Swiss men who immigrated from another country to Switzerland and 1 non-Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 11 and the non-Swiss population increased by 3 people. This represents a population growth rate of -4.0%.
The age distribution, , in Balm bei Günsberg is; 18 children or 9.2% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 31 teenagers or 15.8% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 8 people or 4.1% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 65 people or 33.2% are between 25 and 44, and 57 people or 29.1% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 11 people or 5.6% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 6 people or 3.1% who are over 80.
, there were 79 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 102 married individuals, 6 widows or widowers and 9 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 75 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 12 households that consist of only one person and 3 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 75 households that answered this question, 16.0% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 29 married couples without children, 28 married couples with children There were 4 single parents with a child or children. There were 2 households that were made up of unrelated people.
there were 55 single family homes (or 74.3% of the total) out of a total of 74 inhabited buildings. There were 2 multi-family buildings (2.7%), along with 12 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (16.2%) and 5 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (6.8%). Of the single family homes 1 were built before 1919, while 10 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (28) were built between 1981 and 1990.
there were 77 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 23. There were 2 single room apartments and 45 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 73 apartments (94.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 2 apartments (2.6%) were seasonally occupied and 2 apartments (2.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.22%.