There were 536 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.0% of the workforce.  , there were 78 workers who commuted into the municipality and 346 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 5.1% of the workforce coming into Sonvilier are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 10.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 61% used a private car. From the , 247 or 21.3% were Roman Catholic, while 627 or 54.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.17% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 178 individuals (or about 15.37% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 4 individuals (or about 0.35% of the population) who were Jewish, and 17 (or about 1.47% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist. 129 (or about 11.14% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 40 individuals (or about 3.45% of the population) did not answer the question. In Sonvilier about 406 or (35.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 91 or (7.9%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 91 who completed tertiary schooling, 65.9% were Swiss men, 24.2% were Swiss women, 8.8% were non-Swiss men. The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship. During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 110 students attending classes in Sonvilier. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 27 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 7.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 14.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language.