Canton of Bern - Demographics

Demographics

The canton of Bern is bilingual: Both German (22 districts, with 84% of the population) and French (three districts, 7.6%) are spoken. The German-speaking majority speaks Bernese German, a Swiss German dialect. French-speakers live in the western and northern part of the canton. Both German and French are spoken in the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne. In the government and administration, both languages are official languages of equal standing.

Bern has a population (as of December 2011) of 985,046. As of 2010, 23.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 3.3%. Migration accounted for 3.8%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.2%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (804,190 or 84.0%) as their first language, French is the second most common (72,646 or 7.6%) and Italian is the third (18,908 or 2.0%). There are 688 people who speak Romansh.

As of 2008, the population was 47.5% male and 52.5% female. The population was made up of 44,032 Swiss men (35.4% of the population) and 15,092 (12.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 51,531 Swiss women (41.4%) and 13,726 (11.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the canton, 292,559 or about 30.6% were born in Bern and lived there in 2000. There were 339,659 or 35.5% who were born in the same canton, while 154,709 or 16.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 129,864 or 13.6% were born outside of Switzerland.

As of 2000, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.1%.

As of 2000, there were 397,095 people who were single and never married in the canton. There were 449,014 married individuals, 61,206 widows or widowers and 49,882 individuals who are divorced.

As of 2000, there were 415,901 private households in the canton, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 150,116 households that consist of only one person and 24,000 households with five or more people. As of 2009, the construction rate of new housing units was 4.3 new units per 1000 residents.

As of 2003 the average price to rent an average apartment in Bern city was 1108.92 Swiss francs (CHF) per month (US$890, £500, €710 approx. exchange rate from 2003). The average rate for a one room apartment was 619.82 CHF (US$500, £280, €400), a two room apartment was about 879.36 CHF (US$700, £400, €560), a three room apartment was about 1040.54 CHF (US$830, £470, €670) and a six or more room apartment cost an average of 2094.80 CHF (US$1680, £940, €1340). The average apartment price in Bern was 99.4% of the national average of 1116 CHF. The vacancy rate for the canton, in 2010, was 1.22%.