Thierstein District

Thierstein District contains twelve municipalities, with Kleinlützel existing as an exclave.

Thierstein has an area, as of 2009[update], of 102.16 square kilometers (39.44 sq mi).

Of the rest of the land, 7.04 km2 (2.72 sq mi) or 6.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.15 km2 (37 acres) or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and 0.2 km2 (0.077 sq mi) or 0.2% is unproductive land.

[2] The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or a Doe Gules statant on a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert.

[1] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (12,376 or 91.8%), with Italian being second most common (212 or 1.6%) and Albanian being third (176 or 1.3%).

[4] The historical population is given in the following chart:[7] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 30.48% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 4,872 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.9%.

[8] From the 2000 census[update], 9,494 or 70.4% were Roman Catholic, while 1,619 or 12.0% 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.

282 lower secondary students attend the district school of Thierstein.