Unterems is a former

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the district of

Leuk Leuk (french: Loèche-Ville) is a municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013, the former municipality of Erschmatt merged into the municipality of Leuk.canton of

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The municipalities of

Turtmann Turtmann (French: ''Tourtemagne'') 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.

and Unterems merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of

Turtmann-Unterems Turtmann-Unterems is a 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.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013

History

Unterems is first mentioned in 1270 as ''inferiorem hemesa''.

Geography

Unterems had an area, , of . 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. 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 A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Ze Schmidu, Feldishaus and Prupräsu.

Coat of arms

The

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

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.''

Demographics

Unterems had a population () of 142.Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB
''Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter'' accessed 3 October 2012 , 2.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
accessed 19 June 2010 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.
accessed 09-September-2011 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

(158 or 98.1%) as their first language, French,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

are all spoken by 1 person. , 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.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011 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. The age distribution of the population () 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%. , 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.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 56 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. 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. 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%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , 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. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:200 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:40 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:8 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1802 from:start till:62 text:"62" bar:1850 from:start till:114 text:"114" bar:1860 from:start till:148 text:"148" bar:1870 from:start till:112 text:"112" bar:1880 from:start till:132 text:"132" bar:1888 from:start till:133 text:"133" bar:1900 from:start till:133 text:"133" bar:1910 from:start till:119 text:"119" bar:1920 from:start till:151 text:"151" bar:1930 from:start till:159 text:"159" bar:1941 from:start till:186 text:"186" bar:1950 from:start till:197 text:"197" bar:1960 from:start till:200 text:"200" bar:1970 from:start till:165 text:"165" bar:1980 from:start till:151 text:"151" bar:1990 from:start till:150 text:"150" bar:2000 from:start till:161 text:"161"

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 A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

(2.08%). In the federal election, a total of 82 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...

was 66.1%. 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%. 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%.

Economy

, Unterems had an unemployment rate of 0.7%. , 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 In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction. ...

. 79 people were employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, with 5 businesses in this sector. There were 64 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.3% of the workforce. the total number of

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employee, employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to me ...

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.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011 , 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.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 17.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 53.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 146 or 90.7% were

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, while 6 or 3.7% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

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 A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...

''). Of the 7 who completed tertiary schooling, 57.1% were Swiss men, 42.9% were Swiss women. , there were 8 students in Unterems who came from another municipality, while 15 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website
* {{Authority control Former municipalities of Valais