Oensingen

Geschichte

Oensingen is a municipality in the district of Gäu in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.HistoryOensingen is first mentioned in 968 as Oingesingin cum ecclesia.GeographyOensingen has an area, of 12.07km2. Of this area, 4.79km2 or 39.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 4.49km2 or 37.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.65km2 or 22.0% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.08km2 or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes and 0.03km2 or 0.2% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 4.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.1%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.2% of the area Out of the forested land, 36.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 31.3% is used for growing crops and 6.7% is pastures and 1.2% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.The municipality is located in the Gäu district, at the base of the Jura Mountains at the exit of the Balsthal gorge.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Cross pattee couped Argent.DemographicsOensingen has a population of., 26.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 14%.