Welschenrohr (French: Rosières) is a former municipality in the district of Thal in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. On 1 January 2021 the former municipalities of Gänsbrunnen and Welschenrohr merged to form the new municipality of Welschenrohr-Gänsbrunnen.
History
Welschenrohr is first mentioned in 1179 as Rore. An important watch manufacturing place up to the 1960s, its economy was heavily affected by the late 1960s watch crisis. Now, its economy specializes in fine mechanics.
Geography
Welschenrohr had an area, , of . Of this area, or 35.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 58.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.8% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, 56.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 7.3% is used for growing crops and 24.1% is pastures and 3.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The former municipality is located in the Thal district, along the road between Balsthal and Moutier. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Welschenrohr. It is located in the Jura mountains.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per bend sinister Gules and Argent a Cramp fesswise counterchanged.
Demographics
Welschenrohr had a population (as of 2019) of 1,076. , 6.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -6.3%. Over the same time period the population has changed at a rate of -4.7% due to migration and at a rate of -3.5% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks German (1,105 or 94.4%), with Albanian being second most common (18 or 1.5%) and French being third (10 or 0.9%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The population was made up of 527 Swiss men (46.1% of the population) and 49 (4.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 525 Swiss women (46.0%) and 41 (3.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 616 or about 52.6% were born in Welschenrohr and lived there in 2000. There were 179 or 15.3% who were born in the same canton, while 227 or 19.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 101 or 8.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 5 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 8 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 3 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland and 3 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 4 non-Swiss men and 3 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 18 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 1 people. This represents a population growth rate of -1.7%.
The age distribution, , in Welschenrohr is; 88 children or 7.5% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 206 teenagers or 17.6% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 53 people or 4.5% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 304 people or 26.0% are between 25 and 44, and 252 people or 21.5% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 210 people or 17.9% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 58 people or 5.0% who are over 80.
, there were 458 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 579 married individuals, 91 widows or widowers and 43 individuals who are divorced.