Böckten is a municipality in the district of Sissach in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.

Of the rest of the land, 0.33 km2 (0.13 sq mi) or 14.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km2 (7.4 acres) or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes.

This valley is named after Basel-Country's main river, the Ergolz, which flows into the Rhine before Basel and was already a drinking water source for the Romans.

While Böckten has grown together with Gelterkinden during the 1980s and 1990s, it remains separate from Sissach to this day.

Nevertheless, it is mainly attached to Sissach in administrative matters (e.g. school system, church).

Its location between these bigger municipalities, that both possess an express train railway station, makes Böckten much more connected to the nearby centers (most notably Basel and Liestal) than most other localities of comparable size.

Unlike in neighbouring Sissach and Gelterkinden, there are no church bells in Böckten to wake you at 6am.

After the establishing of the Gotthard Pass, the Bischofstein castle was built and completed in 1311 in order to secure the region.

Not unlike many Swiss agglomerations, Böckten has witnessed a building boom from the 1980s onwards, which quickly doubled its population from below 400 in 1980 to over 700 in 1991.

[7] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (605 or 90.4%), with Albanian being second most common (13 or 1.9%) and Italian language being third (12 or 1.8%).

[6] The age distribution, as of 2010[update], in Böckten is; 64 children or 8.2% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 92 teenagers or 11.8% are between 7 and 19.

[7] The historical population is given in the following chart:[4][12] Besides several typical small-scale enterprises, Böckten is the site of a factory of the Swiss comestible goods chain Le Patron.

In the tertiary sector; 12 or 29.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 5 or 12.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 7.3% were in the information industry, 2 or 4.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 3 or 7.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 9.8% were in education and 1 or 2.4% were in health care.

[7] Böckten is the midpoint on the 105 bus route between Sissach train station and Gelterkinden centre which are each only a few minutes away.

Both Sissach and Gelterkinden have regular trains to Basel (17 mins) and to Zurich, Bern and Luzern via Olten.

Gelterkinden's station lies near its border with Böckten and is easily reachable on foot.

Sissach's express railway station can be easily reached by bike.

The Swiss automobile highway system can be joined in Sissach in an approximate distance of four kilometers.

From 1891 on, Böckten harbored a station of the electronic tramway that commuted between Sissach and Gelterkinden.

From the 2000 census[update], 113 or 16.9% were Roman Catholic, while 389 or 58.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

Its current members (as of January 2007) as well as their respective departments are as follows: Architecture, police, economics (agriculture and forestry), hunting, fishery Sewage, water supply, municipally owned real estate Education, culture (kindergarten, schools, youth music school, churches, cultural promotion, recreational time, sports), social security, health care, social welfare Land use planning and regulation, road administration, public transportation, environmental protection, cemetery, public security (military, fire department, civil defense) Finances, accounting, taxing, insurances, general administration The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Barry of Six Argent and Azure.