Egerkingen

Egerkingen is a municipality in the district of Gäu in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.

[3] Egerkingen has an area, as of 2009[update], of 6.94 square kilometers (2.68 sq mi).

Of the rest of the land, 1.74 km2 (0.67 sq mi) or 25.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km2 (4.9 acres) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes.

[4] The municipality is located in the Gäu district, at the southern foot of the Jura Mountains between Olten and Oensingen.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure two Fir Trees issuant from as many Mounts all Vert between three Fleurs-de-lis or the middle one inverted.

[8] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (2,522 or 87.4%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common (81 or 2.8%) and Turkish being third (56 or 1.9%).

[7] The age distribution, as of 2000[update], in Egerkingen is; 221 children or 7.7% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 463 teenagers or 16.1% are between 7 and 19.

The greatest number of single family homes (62) were built between 1971 and 1980.

[8] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][13] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 34.29% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 884 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.4%.

[8] There were 1,599 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.5% of the workforce.

The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 625 of which 550 or (88.0%) were in manufacturing, 4 or (0.6%) were in mining and 71 (11.4%) were in construction.

In the tertiary sector; 672 or 46.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 115 or 7.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 258 or 17.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 11 or 0.8% were in the information industry, 38 or 2.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 96 or 6.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 42 or 2.9% were in education and 110 or 7.6% were in health care.

[8] From the 2000 census[update], 1,540 or 53.4% were Roman Catholic, while 620 or 21.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

The education system in the Canton of Solothurn allows young children to attend two years of non-obligatory Kindergarten.

All the lower secondary students from Egerkingen attend their school in a neighboring municipality.

View from the Höchi Flue in Egenkingen
Aerial view (1958)
Egerkingen church