Unterems

Unterems
Former municipality
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Unterems
Unterems Show map of Switzerland Unterems Show map of Canton of Valais
Coordinates: 46°17′N7°42′E / 46.283°N 7.700°E / 46.283; 7.700
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Valais
District	Leuk
Government
•  Mayor	Johann Tscherrig
Area
• Total	135 km2 (52 sq mi)
Elevation	1,003 m (3,291 ft)
Highest elevation (Massoltern)	1,200 m (3,900 ft)
Lowest elevation	800 m (2,600 ft)
Population  (December 2011)
• Total	142
• Density	1.1/km2 (2.7/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (Central European Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)	3948
SFOS number	6115
ISO 3166 code	CH-VS
Surrounded by	Agarn, Ergisch, Oberems, Turtmann
Website	www.unterems.ch SFSO statistics

Unterems is a former municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The municipalities of Turtmann and Unterems merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Turtmann-Unterems. ^[1]

History

Unterems is first mentioned in 1270 as inferiorem hemesa. ^[2]

Geography

Unterems had an area, as of 2011 ^[update] , of 1.4 square kilometers (0.54 sq mi). Of this area, 39.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 53.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 7.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.0% is unproductive land. ^[3]

The former municipality is located in the Leuk district, high on the left side of the Rhone valley. It consists of the village of Unterems and the hamlets of Ze Schmidu, Feldishaus and Prupräsu.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Cross Patee Gules in chief two Mullets of Six Or in base a branch of Lime Tree/Linden Tree slipped with three Leaves Vert. ^[4]

Demographics

Unterems had a population (as of 2011 ^[update] ) of 142. ^[5] As of 2008 ^[update] , 2.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. ^[6] Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 5.9%. It has changed at a rate of 7.8% due to migration and at a rate of -15.7% due to births and deaths. ^[3]

Most of the population (as of 2000 ^[update] ) speaks German (158 or 98.1%) as their first language, French, Italian and Spanish are all spoken by 1 person. ^[7]

As of 2008 ^[update] , the gender distribution of the population was 43.2% male and 56.8% female. The population was made up of 70 Swiss men (43.2% of the population) and (0.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 88 Swiss women (54.3%) and 4 (2.5%) non-Swiss women. ^[8] Of the population in the municipality 89 or about 55.3% were born in Unterems and lived there in 2000. There were 46 or 28.6% who were born in the same canton, while 13 or 8.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 3 or 1.9% were born outside of Switzerland. ^[7]

The age distribution of the population (as of 2000 ^[update] ) is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 55.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 25.5%. ^[3]

As of 2000 ^[update] , there were 59 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 78 married individuals, 22 widows or widowers and 2 individuals who are divorced. ^[7]

As of 2000 ^[update] , there were 56 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. ^[3] There were 17 households that consist of only one person and 4 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 59 households that answered this question, 28.8% were households made up of just one person and there were 2 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 13 married couples without children, 23 married couples with children There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 3 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. ^[7]

In 2000 ^[update] there were 71 single family homes (or 72.4% of the total) out of a total of 98 inhabited buildings. There were 17 multi-family buildings (17.3%), along with 8 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (8.2%) and 2 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.0%). ^[9]

In 2000 ^[update] , a total of 51 apartments (41.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 66 apartments (53.2%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (5.6%) were empty. ^[9]

The historical population is given in the following chart: ^{[2] [10]}

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 48.11% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (33.77%), the SP (14.72%) and the Green Party (2.08%). In the federal election, a total of 82 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 66.1%. ^[11]

In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 66 votes were cast, of which or about 0.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 54.6%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. ^[12] In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 81 votes were cast, of which 1 or about 1.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 65.3%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%. ^[13]

Economy

As of  2010 ^[update] , Unterems had an unemployment rate of 0.7%. As of 2008 ^[update] , there were 19 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. No one was employed in the secondary sector. 79 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 5 businesses in this sector. ^[3] There were 64 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.3% of the workforce.

In 2008 ^[update] the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 53. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 9, all of which were in agriculture. There were no jobs in the secondary sector. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 44. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in education and 41 or 93.2% were in health care. ^[14]

In 2000 ^[update] , there were 7 workers who commuted into the municipality and 43 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. ^[15] Of the working population, 17.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 53.1% used a private car. ^[3]

Religion

From the 2000 census ^[update] , 146 or 90.7% were Roman Catholic, while 6 or 3.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. ^[7]

Education

In Unterems about 48 or (29.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 7 or (4.3%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule ). Of the 7 who completed tertiary schooling, 57.1% were Swiss men, 42.9% were Swiss women. ^[7]

As of 2000 ^[update] , there were 8 students in Unterems who came from another municipality, while 15 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ^[15]

References

1. Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (in German) accessed 2 January 2013
2. Unterems in German , French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland .
3. Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 09-September-2011
4. Flags of the World.com accessed 09-September-2011
5. Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB ^{[ permanent dead link ]}Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter(in German) accessed 3 October 2012
6. Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008 (in German) accessed 19 June 2010
7. STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 Archived 2013-08-09 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 2 February 2011
8. Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls (in German and French) accessed 24 August 2011
9. Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen Archived 2014-09-07 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 28 January 2011
10. Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 Archived 2014-09-30 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 29 January 2011
11. Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton (in German) accessed 28 May 2010
12. Staatsratswahlen vom 1. März 2009 (in German) accessed 24 August 2011
13. Ständeratswahl 2007 (in German) accessed 24 August 2011
14. Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3 Archived 2014-12-25 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 28 January 2011
15. Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb Archived 2007-08-04 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 24 June 2010

External links

• Official website (in German)
• Media related to Unterems at Wikimedia Commons