Sachseln

Sachseln is a village and municipality in the canton of Obwalden in Switzerland. Besides the village of Sachseln, the municipality includes the hamlets of Edisried, Ewil and Flüeli-Ranft.

History

Sachseln is first mentioned in 1173 as Saxhslen.

Geography

Sachseln has an area, as of 2006, of 53.8 square kilometers (20.8 sq mi). Of this area, 45.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 39.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (12.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

The municipality is located on Lake Sarnen (Sarnersee). It consists of the village of Sachseln and the hamlets of Edisried, Ewil and Flüeli-Ranft.

The geographic center of Switzerland is in Sachseln.

Demographics

Sachseln has a population (as of 31 December 2014) of 5,044.As of 2007, 13.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 8.7%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (92.8%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 1.5%) and Portuguese being third ( 1.1%).As of 2000 the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. As of 2000 there are 1,417 households, while in 2009 the total was 2,104 with 1,867 households in Sachseln and 237 in Flüeli-Ranft.