Open Data Insight of the Day

Liesberg is a municipality in the Bezirk Laufen, situated in the upper Laufental valley. It lies at an altitude of 517 meters above sea level and, with a total surface area of 1,246 hectares, is the fourth-largest municipality in the canton of Basel-Landschaft by area. Table 2 summarizes the key features of the municipality, and figure 1 shows its location on the map.

The village is positioned on a terrace above the Birs River and includes several hamlets and an industrial settlement, with its borders defined by natural features like the Buebergkette mountain range. It shares boundaries with the cantons of Solothurn and Jura. A summary of its history can be found on its Wikipedia page at https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liesberg.

As of 2024, Liesberg has a population of 1,118 residents. Of these, 84.3% are Swiss citizens and 15.7% are foreign nationals. The age structure shows 13.5% are young people (0-17 years), 61.2% are of working age (18-65), and 25.3% are older adults (over 65). The population is slightly skewed towards men, with 525 men for every 475 women. In terms of total population, Liesberg ranks 48th among the 86 municipalities in the canton. Table 2 shows the population by age groups since 2005.

The land use in Liesberg is predominantly natural, with forests covering 53.4% of its total surface. Agricultural land accounts for 36.6%, while settlement area makes up 9.0%. The remaining 1.0% is classified as unproductive surface.

Regarding municipal finances, Liesberg's tax revenue ranks 48th in the canton. The municipal tax multiplier and its corresponding rank among the 86 municipalities are not provided in the available data.

In 2022, the municipality's total energy consumption was dominated by electricity at 32,433 MWh, followed by liquid gas at 27,439 MWh and heating oil at 12,371 MWh. Renewable sources included biogas (3,500 MWh), wood (2,357 MWh), ambient heat (2,285 MWh), photovoltaics (726 MWh), and solar thermal (87 MWh). Electricity is a good energy carrier for comparison, as it is used in all communities. With a per capita electricity consumption of 29.7 MWh, Liesberg ranks first in the canton. This exceptionally high per capita consumption is typically indicative of significant industrial activity within the municipality.

The vehicle stock in Liesberg, as of 2026, consists of 777 passenger cars and delivery vans. Of these, 702 vehicles run on petrol, diesel, or other combustion engines, while 75 are fully electric. This means 9.7% of the local vehicle fleet is electric. These figures are detailed in table 3.

In 2024, Liesberg demonstrated strong performance in waste recycling. The municipality recycled 275 kg of green waste per capita, ranking first in the canton for this category. It also ranked third for glass recycling at 41 kg per capita and sixth for oil recycling at 1 kg per capita. With multiple categories in the top 10, Liesberg is overall among the leading municipalities in recycling performance. The total recycled waste, recycled waste per capita, and canton-wide comparison values are shown in table 4.