Gösgen District Facts for Kids

Niedergösgen and the Gösgen Nuclear Power Plant

Gösgen District, canton of Solothurn

Municipalities of Gösgen District

The Gösgen District is one of the ten districts in the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland. It is located in the northeast part of the canton. Gösgen and the Olten District together form the Olten-Gösgen election area. As of 31 December 2020, about 24,793 people live here.

Towns and Villages in Gösgen District
- Changes to Municipalities
Geography of Gösgen District
What is the Gösgen Coat of Arms?
Who Lives in Gösgen District?
Politics in Gösgen District
Religions in Gösgen District
Weather in Gösgen District
Education in Gösgen District
Images for kids
See also

Towns and Villages in Gösgen District

The Gösgen District includes the following towns and villages, which are called municipalities in Switzerland:

Municipality	Population (31 December 2020)	Area, km²
Erlinsbach	3,572	8.90
Hauenstein-Ifenthal	306	5.30
Kienberg	503	8.53
Lostorf	3,963	13.27
Niedergösgen	3,897	4.33
Obergösgen	2,359	3.63
Stüsslingen	1,129	8.40
Trimbach	6,562	7.66
Winznau	1,968	4.00
Wisen	442	4.79
Total	24,793	68.81

Changes to Municipalities

Sometimes, smaller towns or villages join together to form a larger one. This is called a merger.

On January 1, 2006, the towns of Obererlinsbach and Niedererlinsbach merged. They became the new municipality of Erlinsbach.
On January 1, 2021, the former municipality of Rohr joined with Stüsslingen.

Geography of Gösgen District

Gösgen District covers an area of about 68.8 square kilometers (26.6 square miles).

About 41% of this land is used for farming. This includes fields for growing crops and areas for fruit trees.
Forests cover about 43% of the district. These are dense forests or smaller groups of trees.
Around 14.3% of the land has buildings or roads. This includes houses, shops, and transport routes.
Rivers and lakes make up about 1.6% of the area. All the water in the district is flowing water.
A very small part, about 0.1%, is land that cannot be used for anything.

What is the Gösgen Coat of Arms?

Coat of Arms

The blazon (description) of the Gösgen District's coat of arms is simple. It is Per bend sinister Gules and Argent. This means it is divided diagonally from the top left to the bottom right. One part is red (Gules) and the other part is silver or white (Argent).

Who Lives in Gösgen District?

As of December 2020, the population of Gösgen District is 24,793 people.

Languages Spoken

In 2000, most people in Gösgen District spoke German. About 88% of the population used German as their main language.

The second most common language was Italian, spoken by about 3.6% of people.
Serbo-Croatian was the third most common, spoken by about 1.8% of people.
A smaller number of people spoke French or Romansh.

Population Details

In 2008, the population was almost evenly split between males and females. About 49.6% were male and 50.4% were female.

Many people living in Gösgen District were born there (about 29.7%).
Others were born in the same canton (21.2%) or elsewhere in Switzerland (29.8%).
About 16.7% of the people were born outside of Switzerland.

Family Life

In 2000, about 29.7% of people in the district had never been married. Most people were married (49.6%). There were also some widows, widowers, and divorced individuals.

About 29.2% of homes had only one person living in them.
Many homes were married couples with or without children.
Some homes were single parents with children.

Politics in Gösgen District

In the 2007 federal election, people in Gösgen District voted for different political parties.

The most popular party was the SVP, which received about 30.41% of the votes.
Other popular parties included the CVP (19.78%), the SP (19.43%), and the FDP (18.24%).
About 51.6% of people who could vote actually did vote in this election.

Religions in Gösgen District

Based on the 2000 census, people in Gösgen District follow different religions:

About 46.1% of the population were Roman Catholic.
About 27% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.
Smaller groups included Orthodox Christians (1.58%) and members of the Christian Catholic Church (1.19%).
About 5.87% of the population were Islamic.
There were also people who were Buddhist, Hindu, or belonged to other Christian churches.
About 12.76% of the people said they did not belong to any church. They might be agnostic (not sure if God exists) or atheist (do not believe in God).

Weather in Gösgen District

Gösgen District experiences an average of 127.9 days with rain or snow each year.

The district gets about 930 millimeters (36.6 inches) of precipitation annually.
June is usually the wettest month, with about 108 mm (4.3 inches) of rain or snow over 12.4 days.
May has the most days with precipitation (12.6 days) but less rain overall (87 mm or 3.4 inches).
October is the driest month, with about 60 mm (2.4 inches) of precipitation over 8.1 days.

Education in Gösgen District

Education is very important in Gösgen.

About 39% of the people have finished non-mandatory upper secondary education. This is like high school.
About 10.1% have gone on to higher education. This means they have attended a university or a Fachhochschule (a type of professional university).
Most of those who completed higher education were Swiss men (68.3%) and Swiss women (20.1%).