Mund


Mund is a former municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipalities of Mund and Birgisch merged into the municipality of Naters.

History

Mund is first mentioned in 1259 as Munt. Until about 1800 it was normally known as Wyler and the last mention of that name was in 1850.

Geography

Before the merger, Mund had a total area of. Of this area, 24.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 20.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.7% is settled and 54.7% is unproductive land.
The former municipality is located in the Brig district, on the northern slope of the Rhone valley at an elevation of about.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a Mitre Or and a Crosier Argent in saltire.

Demographics

Mund had a population of 528. , 2.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of -12.8%. It has changed at a rate of -13% due to migration and at a rate of -1.3% due to births and deaths. accessed 26-August-2011
Most of the population speaks German as their first language, while one person speaks Italian and one speaks English as their first languages.
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.8% male and 49.2% female. The population was made up of 265 Swiss men and 5 non-Swiss men. There were 258 Swiss women and 4 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 447 or about 77.9% were born in Mund and lived there in 2000. There were 98 or 17.1% who were born in the same canton, while 16 or 2.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 6 or 1.0% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers make up 26% of the population, while adults make up 58.7% and seniors make up 15.3%.
, there were 256 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 269 married individuals, 41 widows or widowers and 8 individuals who are divorced.
there were 124 single family homes out of a total of 183 inhabited buildings. There were 49 multi-family buildings, along with 3 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing and 7 other use buildings that also had some housing.
, a total of 186 apartments were permanently occupied, while 42 apartments were seasonally occupied and 13 apartments were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 7.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 3.07%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:2000 from:start till:574 text:"574"

Sights

The entire hamlet of Bodmen is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 76.82% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP, the SP and the FDP. In the federal election, a total of 280 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 61.4%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat election a total of 284 votes were cast, of which 8 or about 2.8% were invalid. The voter participation was 67.8%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 275 votes were cast, of which 5 or about 1.8% were invalid. The voter participation was 60.3%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Mund had an unemployment rate of 0.5%. , there were 60 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 41 businesses involved in this sector. 4 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 3 businesses in this sector. 34 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 11 businesses in this sector. There were 271 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 32.8% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 43. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 18, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 4, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 21. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 9.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 9.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 5 or 23.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 3 or 14.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 3 or 14.3% were in education.
, there were 11 workers who commuted into the municipality and 221 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 20.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 34.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 53.9% used a private car.

Religion

From the, 544 or 94.8% were Roman Catholic, while 5 or 0.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 4 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islamic. 7 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 15 individuals did not answer the question.

Education

In Mund about 193 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 22 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 22 who completed tertiary schooling, 77.3% were Swiss men, 22.7% were Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 40 students in the Mund school system. The education system in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten. During that school year, there was one kindergarten class and 7 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Mund there were a total of 3 classes and 40 students in the primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower secondary students from Mund attend their school in a neighboring municipality. All the upper secondary students attended school in another municipality.
, there were 4 students in Mund who came from another municipality, while 49 residents attended schools outside the municipality.