Gempen (Swiss German: Gämpe) is a municipality in the district of Dorneck in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.

[3] Gempen has an area, as of 2009[update], of 6 square kilometers (2.3 sq mi).

[4] 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.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Hand with three fingers raised Argent sleeved Gules issuant from base.

[8] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) 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%).

[7] The age distribution, as of 2000[update], 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.

[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 29.48% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 283 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 55.3%.

[8] There were 392 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.8% of the workforce.

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 29, of which 28 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production.

In the tertiary sector; 12 or 5.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 11 or 5.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 9 or 4.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 2 or 1.0% were in education and 152 or 75.2% were in health care.

[8] From the 2000 census[update], 278 or 37.2% were Roman Catholic, while 233 or 31.2% 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 Gempen attend their school in a neighboring municipality.

[16] Nearby Gempen is the Gempentower [de], from which there can be observed the wider countryside around Basel, Dornach and Aesch.