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

Härkingen is first mentioned in 1080 as quendam comitatum nomine Härichingen in pago Buchsgeowe situm (Kopie).

[3] Härkingen has an area, as of 2009[update], of 5.5 square kilometers (2.1 sq mi).

Of the rest of the land, 1.52 km2 (0.59 sq mi) or 27.6% is settled (buildings or roads).

[4] The municipality is located in the Gäu district, in the Dünnern valley south of the division of the A1 and A2 motorways.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure an Oak Stump with two branches leaved and acorned Or rising from a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert.

[8] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (1,105 or 92.4%), with Italian being second most common (22 or 1.8%) and Albanian being third (20 or 1.7%).

[7] The age distribution, as of 2000[update], in Härkingen is; 103 children or 8.6% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 237 teenagers or 19.8% 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 33.59% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 495 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 56.6%.

[8] There were 646 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.9% of the workforce.

The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 240 of which 110 or (45.8%) were in manufacturing, 9 or (3.8%) were in mining and 115 (47.9%) were in construction.

In the tertiary sector; 307 or 23.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 879 or 65.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 37 or 2.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 67 or 5.0% were in the information industry, 2 or 0.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 13 or 1.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 6 or 0.4% were in education and 12 or 0.9% were in health care.

[8] From the 2000 census[update], 720 or 60.2% were Roman Catholic, while 252 or 21.1% 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 Härkingen attend their school in a neighboring municipality.