Ittigen

Municipality in Bern, Switzerland

Ittigen is a municipality in the Bern Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The municipality was formed in 1983 when it and Ostermundigen were separated from territory once part of Bolligen.

Its placename is derived from the Alemannic German "at the people of the Ito", and first appeared in print in 1318 as Yttigen. In 1326 it was mentioned as villa de Ittigen. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 5.0% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 33.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 18.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.4% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.7%. Out of the forested land, 12.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 18.5% is used for growing crops and 5.5% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Bern, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern Mittelland.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Quartered Gules and Or in second a Grenade Sable inflamed of the first and in third a Mill Wheel of the third.

Ittigen has a population of as of 2010, 19.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 2.4%. Migration accounted for 1.3%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.1%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (9,477 or 86.2%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (283 or 2.6%) and French is the third (272 or 2.5%). There are 4 people who speak Romansh. as of 2000, there were 1,923 households that consist of only one person and 199 households with five or more people. In 2000, a total of 4,964 apartments (94.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 198 apartments (3.8%) were seasonally occupied and 99 apartments (1.9%) were empty. as of 2010, the construction rate of new housing units was 1.1 new units per 1000 residents.

The Gosteli Foundation with its archive of the History of the Swiss Feminist Movement is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire Worbletal (Worble valley) which includes; Bolligen, Ittigen, Ostermundigen and Stettlen is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 22.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (19.1%), the BDP Party (15.2%) and the FDP (14.6%). In the federal election, a total of 3,610 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 47.8%.

as of 2011, Ittigen had an unemployment rate of 2.61%. as of 2008, there were a total of 8,976 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 19 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 867 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 82 businesses in this sector. 8,090 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 387 businesses in this sector. In 2000, there were 5,490 workers who commuted into the municipality and 4,882 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.1 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 41.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 38.5% used a private car. During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 1,474 students attending classes in Ittigen. There were 8 kindergarten classes with a total of 168 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 35.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 52.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 28 primary classes and 522 students. Of the primary students, 30.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 39.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 16 lower secondary classes with a total of 275 students. There were 25.8% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 42.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. as of 2000, there were 321 students in Ittigen who came from another municipality, while 329 residents attended schools outside the municipality.