Swiss plateau: Encyclopedia II - Swiss plateau - Population

Swiss plateau - Population

The densely populated Swiss plateau: View from the Uetliberg on Zürich.

Even though the Swiss plateau takes only about 30% of the surface of Switzerland, 5 million people live there, that is more than two thirds of the Swiss population. The population density is 380 people per square kilometer. All the Swiss cities with more than 50 000 inhabitants except Basel are situated in the plateau, especially Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Zürich. The agglomerations of these cities are the most populated areas. Other densely populated areas are the south edge of the Jura and the agglomerations of Lucerne, Winterthur and St. Gallen. Regions of the higher Swiss plateau like the Jorat region, the Napf region or the Töss region are comparingly scarcely populated with little farming villages and scattered farms.

A majority is German-speaking, though the west is French-speaking. The language border has been stable for many centuries even though it falls neither on a geographical nor on a political delimitation. It passes from Biel/Bienne over Murten/Morat and Freiburg/Fribourg to the Fribourg Alps. The cities of Biel/Bienne, Murten/Morat and Freiburg/Fribourg are officially bilingual. Localities along the language border have usually both a German and a French name.

History of settlement: The first areas to be settled in the Neolithic were the watersides of lakes and rivers. Major oppida were built after the Celts appeared in the 3rd century BC. Urban settlements with stone houses were built during the Roman Empire. The Swiss plateau became a part of the Roman Empire 15 BC when the Romans occupied the land of the Helvetii under the reign of Augustus and it remained Roman until the end of the 3rd century. The most important Roman cities in the Swiss plateau were Auenticum (today Avenches), Vinddonissa (today Windisch), Colonia Iulia Equestris or, by its Celtic name, Noviodunum (today Nyon) and Augusta Raurica (today Kaiseraugst). They were well connected by a net of Roman roads. After the retreat of the Roman Empire, the western Swiss plateau was occupied by the romanized Burgundians, the central and the eastern plateau by the Alamanni, thus emerging the language border.

During the Middle Ages many towns were founded, especially in the climatically more favoured lower plateau. In 1500, there were already 130 towns, connected by a dense road network. With the raise of the industrialisation in the early 19th century, the cities became more and more important. In 1860, a drastical population growth of the cities started which lasted for about 100 years. In the 1970s, however, an outmigration from the cities started. Therefore, the municipalities surrounding the cities grew disproportionately, whereas the cities themselves lost inhabitants. In the recent times, the outmigration moves farther away from the cities.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Population", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki