Gempen (Swiss German: Gämpe) is a municipality in the district of Dorneck in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.
History
Gempen is first mentioned in 1277 as Gempenon.
Geography
Gempen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 52.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 40.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.3% is settled (buildings or roads).
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.5%. Out of the forested land, 38.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 25.5% is used for growing crops and 19.2% is pastures, while 7.7% is used for orchards or vine crops.
The municipality is located in the Dorneck district, on the eastern edge of the Schartenfluh and Gempenfluh. It consists of the village of Gempen and the hamlets of Gempenstollen, Schönmatt and Baumgarten.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Hand with three fingers raised Argent sleeved Gules issuant from base.
Demographics
Gempen has a population () of . , 15.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 16.1%.
Most of the population () speaks German (702 or 94.0%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common (12 or 1.6%) and French being third (10 or 1.3%).
, the gender distribution of the population was 48.4% male and 51.6% female. The population was made up of 318 Swiss men (40.2% of the population) and 65 (8.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 338 Swiss women (42.7%) and 71 (9.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 188 or about 25.2% were born in Gempen and lived there in 2000. There were 78 or 10.4% who were born in the same canton, while 329 or 44.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 136 or 18.2% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 5 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 8 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 3 while the foreign population increased by 1. There were 4 Swiss men and 1 Swiss woman who immigrated back to 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 14 and the non-Swiss population increased by 14 people. This represents a population growth rate of 3.8%.
The age distribution, , in Gempen is; 62 children or 8.3% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 136 teenagers or 18.2% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 55 people or 7.4% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 223 people or 29.9% are between 25 and 44, and 184 people or 24.6% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 64 people or 8.6% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 23 people or 3.1% who are over 80.
, there were 360 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 348 married individuals, 22 widows or widowers and 17 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 261 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 65 households that consist of only one person and 30 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 272 households that answered this question, 23.9% were households made up of just one person and there were 1 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 83 married couples without children, 90 married couples with children There were 18 single parents with a child or children. There were 4 households that were made up of unrelated people and 11 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 160 single family homes (or 68.7% of the total) out of a total of 233 inhabited buildings. There were 26 multi-family buildings (11.2%), along with 31 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (13.3%) and 16 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (6.9%). Of the single family homes 17 were built before 1919, while 43 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (39) were built between 1971 and 1980.