Sachseln


Sachseln is a village and municipality in the canton of Obwalden in Switzerland. Besides the village of Sachseln, the municipality includes the hamlets of Edisried, Ewil and Flüeli-Ranft.

History

Sachseln is first mentioned in 1173 as Saxhslen.

Geography

Sachseln has an area,, of. Of this area, 45.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 39.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.1% is settled and the remainder is non-productive.
The municipality is located on Lake Sarnen. It consists of the village of Sachseln and the hamlets of Edisried, Ewil and Flüeli-Ranft.
The geographic center of Switzerland is in Sachseln.

Demographics

Sachseln has a population of. , 13.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 8.7%. Most of the population speaks German , with Serbo-Croatian being second most common and Portuguese being third. the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. there are 1,417 households, while in the total was 2,104 with 1,867 households in Sachseln and 237 in
Flüeli-Ranft.
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 36.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP, the Other and the SPS.
In Sachseln about 71% of the population have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education.
the religious population distribution was; 3,641 or 78.8% are Roman Catholic, while 315 or 6.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 664 individuals who belong to another church or no church.
The historical population is given in the following table:
yearpopulation
17991,250
18371,358
18501,506
18801,701
19001,628
19502,423
19602,721
19703,059
19803,406
19903,690
20004,241
20074,542
20145,044

Economy

Sachseln has an unemployment rate of 0.76%. , there were 251 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 100 businesses involved in this sector. 1,452 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 46 businesses in this sector. 709 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 105 businesses in this sector.
A major employer within the municipality is Maxon Motor, a manufacturer of precision electric motors, who have their corporate headquarters and a production plant at Ewil. A total of 1,150 employees are employed at Maxon Motor's Sachseln site.

Transport

Sachseln is served by the railway stations of Sachseln and Ewil Maxon, situated respectively in the village centre and in the hamlet of Ewil. Both stations are on the Brünig line, and the half-hourly Lucerne S-Bahn S5 service stops at both stations.

Notable people

The main sights of Sacheln are: the local saint Bruder Klaus, a church of pilgrimage, the school building Mattli, and the geographical centre of Switzerland Aelggi.