Konolfingen

Konolfingen is a municipality in the Bern Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

Konolfingen village is first mentioned in 1148 as Chonolfingen. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.8%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 39.4% is used for growing crops and 24.6% is pastures, while 2.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or a Semi Lion Rampant double tailed Gules issuant from three bricked Wall Sable and in chief two Mullets of the second.

Konolfingen has a population of as of 2010, 8.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001–2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0.6%. Migration accounted for 0.5%, while births and deaths accounted for 0%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (4,281 or 92.9%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (62 or 1.3%) and Albanian is the third (44 or 1.0%). There are 22 people who speak French and 1 person who speaks Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 1,446 or about 31.4% were born in Konolfingen and lived there in 2000. There were 2,113 or 45.9% who were born in the same canton, while 492 or 10.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 408 or 8.9% were born outside of Switzerland. as of 2000, there were 587 households that consist of only one person and 138 households with five or more people. In 2000, a total of 1,854 apartments (92.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 86 apartments (4.3%) were seasonally occupied and 65 apartments (3.2%) were empty. as of 2010, the construction rate of new housing units was 0.4 new units per 1000 residents.

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 32% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (17%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (16.2%) and the FDP. The Liberals (7.1%). In the federal election, a total of 1,961 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 53.4%.

as of 2011, Konolfingen had an unemployment rate of 1.33%. as of 2008, there were a total of 2,510 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 212 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 71 businesses involved in this sector. 881 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 48 businesses in this sector. 1,417 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 142 businesses in this sector. In 2000, there were 1,398 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,456 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 24.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 43.5% used a private car. During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 534 students attending classes in Konolfingen. There were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 74 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 14.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 17 primary classes and 275 students. Of the primary students, 13.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 1.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 10 lower secondary classes with a total of 185 students. There were 9.2% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 1.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. as of 2000, there were 139 students in Konolfingen who came from another municipality, while 112 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

The municipality has two railway stations, and The former is located at the junction of the Bern–Lucerne and Burgdorf–Thun lines, while Stalden im Emmental is just to the south of Konolfingen on the Burgdorf–Thun line.