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 (buildings or roads) 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 (as of 2010) of 528. , 2.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) 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. Most of the population () speaks German (571 or 99.5%) 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 (49.8% of the population) and 5 (0.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 258 Swiss women (48.5%) and 4 (0.8%) 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 (0–19 years old) make up 26% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) 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. , a total of 186 apartments (77.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 42 apartments  (17.4%) were seasonally occupied and 13 apartments (5.4%) 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: 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 (16.8%), the SP (3.92%) and the FDP (1.18%). In the federal election, a total  of 280 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 61.4%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/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. , 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 (or about 0.70% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islamic. 7 (or about 1.22% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 15 individuals (or about 2.61% of the population) did not answer the question. Education. In Mund about 193 or (33.6%) of  the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 22 or (3.8%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). 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 (KG1 or KG2) 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 (orientation classes), 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.