Gettnau is first mentioned in the 9th Century as Kepinhouva.
Geography
Gettnau had an area, of. Of this area, about 52.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 36.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 10.5% is settled and 0.8% is unproductive land. Over the past two decades the amount of land that is settled has increased by and the agricultural land has decreased by. , 37.13% of the total land area was forested. Of the agricultural land, 50.17% is used for farming or pastures, while 2.48% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the settled areas, 2.97% is covered with buildings, 2.15% is industrial, 0.66% is classed as special developments, and 3.96% is transportation infrastructure. Of the unproductive areas, 0.33% is unproductive flowing water and 0.17% is other unproductive land. The municipality is located at the entrance to the Luthern valley.
Demographics
Gettnau has a population of. , 16.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 3 years the population has changed at a rate of 1.67%. The birth rate in the municipality, in 2013, was 11.6 while the death rate was 5.8 per thousand residents. Most of the population speaks German, with Albanian being second most common and Portuguese being third. , children and teenagers make up 24.2% of the population, while adults are 61.6% and seniors make up 14.2%. In 2013 there were 392 private households in Gettnau. Of the 204 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 49.5% were single family homes and 14.7% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 26.5% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 8.8% were built between 1991 and 2000. In 2012 there was no new construction and the vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 1.83%. there are 330 households, of which 79 households contain only a single individual. 54 or about 16.4% are large households, with at least five members. there were 199 inhabited buildings in the municipality, of which 128 were built only as housing, and 71 were mixed use buildings. There were 99 single family homes, 15 double family homes, and 14 multi-family homes in the municipality. Most homes were either two or three story structures. There were only 10 single story buildings and 6 four or more story buildings. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray id:darkgrey value:gray ImageSize = width:1100 height:500 PlotArea = height:350 left:100 bottom:90 right:100 Legend = columns:3 left:220 top:70 columnwidth:160 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 Colors= id:GE value:yellowgreen legend:Population_of_Gettnau PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:30 mark: align:center bar:1695 from: 0 till:350 text:"ca. 350" color:GE bar:1798 from: 0 till:459 text:"459" color:GE bar:1850 from: 0 till:671 text:"671" color:GE bar:1860 from: 0 till:674 text:"674" color:GE bar:1870 from: 0 till:620 text:"620" color:GE bar:1880 from: 0 till:562 text:"562" color:GE bar:1888 from: 0 till:555 text:"555" color:GE bar:1900 from: 0 till:604 text:"604" color:GE bar:1910 from: 0 till:652 text:"652" color:GE bar:1920 from: 0 till:659 text:"659" color:GE bar:1930 from: 0 till:660 text:"660" color:GE bar:1941 from: 0 till:708 text:"708" color:GE bar:1950 from: 0 till:772 text:"772" color:GE bar:1960 from: 0 till:717 text:"717" color:GE bar:1970 from: 0 till:710 text:"710" color:GE bar:1980 from: 0 till:823 text:"823" color:GE bar:1990 from: 0 till:973 text:"973" color:GE bar:2000 from: 0 till:990 text:"990" color:GE
Economy
, there were a total of 461 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 79 people worked in 29 businesses in the primary economic sector. The secondary sector employed 252 workers in 21 separate businesses. Finally, the tertiary sector provided 130 jobs in 46 businesses. In 2013 a total of 0.% of the population received social assistance.
Politics
In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the CVP with 39.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP, the FDP and the SP. In the federal election, a total of 384 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 54.9%.
Religion
the religious membership of Gettnau was; 794 were Roman Catholic, and 114 were Protestant, with an additional 4 that were of some other Christian faith. There are 17 individuals who are Muslim. Of the rest; there were 8 individuals who belong to another religion, 12 who do not belong to any organized religion, 41 who did not answer the question.
Education
The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Gettnau about 58% of the population have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education.
Crime
In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the Swiss Criminal Code, in Gettnau was 32.9 per thousand residents. This rate is only 57.0% of the cantonal rate and 50.9% of the average rate in the entire country. During the same period, the rate of drug crimes was 4.8 per thousand residents, which is only 48.5% of the national rate.
