Messen is a municipality in the district of Bucheggberg, in the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland.

[4] Balm bei Messen is first mentioned in 1254 as de Balmo.

[7] Messen has an area, as of 2009[update], of 7.08 square kilometers (2.73 sq mi).

Of the rest of the land, 0.49 km2 (0.19 sq mi) or 6.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km2 (7.4 acres) or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes.

[8] The municipality is located in the Bucheggberg district, in the hill country south of the Limpach valley.

It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Messen and the hamlets of Eichholz and Niderwol.

It now also includes the former independent municipalities of Balm bei Messen, Brunnenthal and Oberramsern.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a House with two Towers embattled all Argent.

[12] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (945 or 97.6%), with French being second most common (10 or 1.0%) and Portuguese being third (3 or 0.3%).

[11] The age distribution, as of 2000[update], in Messen is; 98 children or 10.1% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 158 teenagers or 16.3% are between 7 and 19.

The greatest number of single family homes (31) were built between 1981 and 1990.

[12] The historical population is given in the following chart:[4][5][6][7][17] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 33.76% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 389 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 51.6%.

[12] There were 531 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.2% of the workforce.

In the tertiary sector; 49 or 32.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 32 or 21.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 10 or 6.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 6 or 4.0% were in the information industry, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 7.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 30 or 19.9% were in education and 6 or 4.0% were in health care.

[12] From the 2000 census[update], 92 or 9.5% were Roman Catholic, while 795 or 82.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.