Bister is first mentioned in 1374 as Bystur. In 1480 it was mentioned as Bistar.
Geography
Bister has an area,, of. Of this area, 18.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 40.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.3% is settled and 41.3% is unproductive land. The municipality is located in the Östlich-Raron district. It consists of houses scattered across the valley slopes.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per bend Azure and Sable, in base issuant from Water wavy Argent Coupeaux Vert and a wheat ear Or.
Demographics
Bister has a population of., 3.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 3.8%. It has changed at a rate of 7.7% due to migration and at a rate of -15.4% due to births and deaths. All of the population speaks German as their first language. , the population was made up of 26 Swiss citizens and 1 non-citizen residents. Of the population in the municipality, 15 or about 45.5% were born in Bister and lived there in 2000. There were 12 or 36.4% who were born in the same canton, while 4 or 12.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1 or 3.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers make up 9.1% of the population, while adults make up 57.6% and seniors make up 33.3%. , there were 15 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 17 married individuals, 1 widows or widowers and 0 individuals who were divorced. , there were 14 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.1 persons per household. There were 7 households that consist of only one person and 1 households with five or more people., a total of 14 apartments were permanently occupied, while 25 apartments were seasonally occupied and 5 apartments were empty. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray id:darkgrey value:gray ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:120 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:20 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:4 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark: align:center bar:1850 from:start till:118 text:"118" bar:1860 from:start till:82 text:"82" bar:1870 from:start till:99 text:"99" bar:1880 from:start till:111 text:"111" bar:1888 from:start till:112 text:"112" bar:1900 from:start till:110 text:"110" bar:1910 from:start till:99 text:"99" bar:1920 from:start till:77 text:"77" bar:1930 from:start till:79 text:"79" bar:1941 from:start till:91 text:"91" bar:1950 from:start till:72 text:"72" bar:1960 from:start till:46 text:"46" bar:1970 from:start till:41 text:"41" bar:1980 from:start till:30 text:"30" bar:1990 from:start till:23 text:"23" bar:2000 from:start till:33 text:"33" bar:2018 from:start till:33 text:"33"
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 47.62% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP, the SVP and the FDP. In the federal election, a total of 18 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 69.2%. In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat election a total of 17 votes were cast, of which 1 or about 5.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 65.4%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 18 votes were cast. The voter participation was 69.2%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Bister had an unemployment rate of 0%., there were 8 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. No one was employed in the secondary sector or the tertiary sector. There were 16 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 56.3% of the workforce. the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 4, all of which were in agriculture. , there were 9 workers who commuted away from the municipality. Of the working population, 12.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 50% used a private car.
In Bister about 11 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 3 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 3 who completed tertiary schooling, 2 were Swiss men, 1 was a Swiss women. , there were 2 students from Bister who attended schools outside the municipality.
