Laufen, Canton of Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland

🇨🇭 Laufen is a municipality and the capital of the district of Laufen in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.

Laufen is a principal train station for the surrounding area, connecting it to Basel.

History Between 58 BC and 470 AD, Laufen was part of the Roman Empire; after the empire collapsed it was part of the Alemanish area for several decades. During the early sixth century, the entire valley came into the possession of France, and from 853 until 1033 it was part of the Burgundian Kingdom. In 999 Rudolf III, the childless king of Burgundy donated most of the Laufen valley territory to the Archbishopric of Basel.

Laufen is first mentioned in 1141 as Loufen. For a time, it was known by its French name Laufon. In 1295 Peter Reich von Reichenstein  founded the small town of Laufen.

Geography Laufen has an area, as of 2009, of 11.37 square km (4.39 sq mi). Of this area, 3.07 km² (1.19 sq mi) or 27.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6 km² (2.3 sq mi) or 52.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.15 km² (0.83 sq mi) or 18.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.1 km² (25 acres) or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km² (4.9 acres) or 0.2% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.5% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 8.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 51.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 18.7% is used for growing crops and 7.7% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is the capital of the Laufen district. It consists of the old city of Laufen, within the city walls, the settlement outside the walls by the waterfall and since the 20th Century, settlements on both sides of the Birs river. The old city and the settlement outside the walls merged in 1852.

Heritage sites The Christian-Catholic Church of St. Katharina is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire old city of Laufen in part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. The Neolithic cist gravesite situated within the municipality was listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance in 1995, but is no longer included in the list.

Economy As of  2007, Laufen had an unemployment rate of 2.87%. As of 2005, there were 35 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 12 businesses involved in this sector. 966 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 59 businesses in this sector. 2,134 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 275 businesses in this sector. There were 2,549 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.5% of the workforce.

In 2008 the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 2,691. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 21, of which 16 were in agriculture and 6 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 947, of which 750 or (79.2%) were in manufacturing, 15 or (1.6%) were in mining and 177 (18.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,723. In the tertiary sector; 424 or 24.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 105 or 6.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 81 or 4.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 12 or 0.7% were in the information industry, 195 or 11.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 146 or 8.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 141 or 8.2% were in education and 434 or 25.2% were in health care.

In 2000, there were 2,656 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,431 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.9 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 13.1% of the workforce coming into Laufen are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 18.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 41.2% used a private car.

Laufen has the head office of Ricola, and Laufen Bathrooms AG.

Religion From the 2000 census, 3,058 or 63.0% were Roman Catholic, while 692 or 14.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 47 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.97% of the population), there were 100 individuals (or about 2.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 47 individuals (or about 0.97% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 individuals (or about 0.10% of the population) who were Jewish, and 254 (or about 5.23% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 11 individuals who were Buddhist, 51 individuals who were Hindu, and 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 399 (or about 8.21% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 188 individuals (or about 3.87% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education In Laufen about 1,648 or (33.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 543 or (11.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 543 who completed tertiary schooling, 64.1% were Swiss men, 24.9% were Swiss women, 6.8% were non-Swiss men and 4.2% were non-Swiss women. As of 2000, there were 557 students in Laufen who came from another municipality, while 122 residents attended schools outside the municipality.