Bilten


Bilten is a former municipality in the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Effective from 1 January 2011, Bilten is part of the municipality of Glarus Nord.

History

Bilten is first mentioned in 1050 as Billitun.

Geography

Bilten has an area,, of. Of this area, 37.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 50.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 8.2% is settled and the remainder is non-productive.
Bilten was the most northerly municipality in the canton and is located on the southern end of the Linth river. It consists of the linear village of Bilten, with the village sections of Ober-, Unterbilten and Rufi, and the hamlet of Ussbühl which is located on the border with the Canton of Schwyz.

Demographics

Bilten had a population of 2,001. , 28.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 6.7%. Most of the population speaks German , with Serbo-Croatian being second most common and Italian being third.
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 47.2% of the vote. Most of the rest of the votes went to the SPS with 43.7% of the vote.
In Bilten about 54.9% of the population have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education.
Bilten has an unemployment rate of 1.66%. , there were 66 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 26 businesses involved in this sector. 509 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 30 businesses in this sector. 241 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 49 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:
yearpopulation
1850681
1900555
1950706
20001,882

Transportation

The municipality is located on the A3 motorway.
Bilten railway station is a stop of the Zurich S-Bahn service S2. It is the penultimate stop on the S2 line southbound before Ziegelbrücke where the train terminates. In the other direction, the S2 heads towards Zürich Hauptbahnhof, Zürich Flughafen and finally Effretikon.