e Social Democratic era of the city.
In the years leading up to the Second World War, the Social Democrats began to lose power in the city. In the last year of the war, the Swiss Party of Labour gained nine seats on the city council and ended the Social Democrat majority. With the resignation of Mayor M�ller in 1947, it would be almost thirty years (1976) before the Social Democrats had another mayor in Biel.
On the occasion of the secession of the canton of Jura in 1978, Biel had been asked to become its capital, but it remained with the canton of Bern.
The town was officially named Biel until 2004, even though the bilingual Biel-Bienne was in common use. Since 2005, the official name has been Biel/Bienne, with forward slash.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the town's population was at 30,000 people. It doubled over the next 60 years, peaking at 65,000 in the mid 1960s. It declined gradually over the 1970s to 1990s, to below 49,000 in 2000, again rising slightly to just over 50,000 during the 2000s. Another 89,000 people live in the immediately surrounding urban agglomeration
