Orpund is a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

[3] The oldest traces of settlements in the area were neolithic, Bronze Age and La Tène era artifacts which were discovered during construction of the Nidau-Büren Canal.

A horde of Bronze Age items and a Roman era settlement were found on the Büttenberg.

The village and the monastery jointly owned an island in the Thielle/Zihl river, which they used for fishing.

However, the straw roofing and close quarters made another fire almost inevitable.

[4] The Jura water correction projects of 1868-75 diverted the Aare river into Lake Biel and built the Nidau-Büren Canal through Orpund.

The canal drained the Orpundmoos marsh and reduced flooding in the village.

Today, many of the residents commute to jobs in Biel or other nearby cities.

It includes the village of Orpund, the site of the former Gottstatt Monastery and the hamlet Zihlwil.

[7] The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules an Oar and a Pike both Or in saltire.

[10] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (2,168 or 86.7%) as their first language, French is the second most common (166 or 6.6%) and Italian is the third (37 or 1.5%).

In 2011, single family homes made up 65.7% of the total housing in the municipality.

[15] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][16][17] The entire Gottstatt Monastery area is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

In the federal election, a total of 816 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 43.6%.

[10] There were 1,350 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.5% of the workforce.

In the tertiary sector; 98 or 42.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 5.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 16 or 6.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 1.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 39 or 16.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 31 or 13.3% were in education and 5 or 2.1% were in health care.

[25] Established in 1977, the organisation Suisse Tiers Monde and OS3 are two projects initiated by Erklärung von Bern EvB, and thereupon labelled as claro fair trade based in Orpun,[26] that is among other sustainable initiatives financially supported by the Alternative Bank Schweiz ABS.

[27] From the 2000 census[update], 1,627 or 65.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 363 or 14.5% were Roman Catholic.

This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude.

Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.

[28] During the 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 382 students attending classes in Orpund.