Bovernier is a

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

Martigny Martigny (; german: Martinach, ; la, Octodurum) is the capital city of the district of Martigny, canton of Valais, Switzerland. It lies at an elevation of , and its population is approximately 15000 inhabitants (''Martignerains'' or "Octoduriens ...

in the 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 26 cantons forming the S ...

in Switzerland.

History

Bovernier is first mentioned in 1228 as ''Burgus Warnierus''.

Geography

Bovernier has an area, , of . Of this area, 5.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 72.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and 18.5% is unproductive land. The municipality is located in the Martigny district, at the entrance to the Entremont region. It consists of the village of Bovernier and the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Les Valettes.

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 vi ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

is ''Azure, issuant from a Castle Argent an Alder-tree Branch palewise Or.''

Demographics

Bovernier has a population () of . , 6.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 5%. It has changed at a rate of 2.1% due to migration and at a rate of 2.3% due to births and deaths.
accessed 14-September-2011 Most of the population () speaks French (718 or 98.0%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (7 or 1.0%) and

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 ...

is the third (2 or 0.3%). There is 1 person who speaks

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 ...

. , the gender distribution of the population was 49.7% male and 50.3% female. The population was made up of 366 Swiss men (46.2% of the population) and 28 (3.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 375 Swiss women (47.3%) and 24 (3.0%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality 455 or about 62.1% were born in Bovernier and lived there in 2000. There were 186 or 25.4% who were born in the same canton, while 42 or 5.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 39 or 5.3% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 29.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 55.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.4%. , there were 296 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 375 married individuals, 45 widows or widowers and 17 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 278 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 69 households that consist of only one person and 36 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 283 households that answered this question, 24.4% were households made up of just one person and there was 1 adult who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 82 married couples without children, 105 married couples with children There were 17 single parents with a child or children. There were 4 households that were made up of unrelated people and 5 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. , a total of 277 apartments (66.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 115 apartments (27.4%) were seasonally occupied and 27 apartments (6.4%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.66%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:740 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:300 text:"300" bar:1860 from:start till:373 text:"373" bar:1870 from:start till:386 text:"386" bar:1880 from:start till:410 text:"410" bar:1888 from:start till:423 text:"423" bar:1900 from:start till:476 text:"476" bar:1910 from:start till:482 text:"482" bar:1920 from:start till:493 text:"493" bar:1930 from:start till:500 text:"500" bar:1941 from:start till:540 text:"540" bar:1950 from:start till:557 text:"557" bar:1960 from:start till:599 text:"599" bar:1970 from:start till:616 text:"616" bar:1980 from:start till:607 text:"607" bar:1990 from:start till:720 text:"720" bar:2000 from:start till:733 text:"733"

Politics

In the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not ...

the most popular party was the CVP which received 39.75% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (18.77%), the FDP (18.53%) and the SVP (10.56%). In the federal election, a total of 440 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 Univ ...

was 71.8%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 431 votes were cast, of which 26 or about 6.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 70.4%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 436 votes were cast, of which 26 or about 6.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 72.4%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Bovernier had an unemployment rate of 4.4%. , there were 16 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. 23 people were 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 constructi ...

and there were 8 businesses in this sector. 44 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 15 businesses in this sector. There were 314 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.4% 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 employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a ...

jobs was 66. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 9, of which 3 were in agriculture and 6 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 21 of which 5 or (23.8%) were in manufacturing and 15 (71.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 36. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 5.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 25.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 16 or 44.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, 3 or 8.3% were in education.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011 , there were 31 workers who commuted into the municipality and 251 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 10.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 77.4% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 677 or 92.4% 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 let ...

, while 17 or 2.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 8 individuals (or about 1.09% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 (or about 0.82% of the population) who were Islamic. 15 (or about 2.05% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 13 individuals (or about 1.77% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Bovernier about 260 or (35.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 50 or (6.8%) 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 ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 50 who completed tertiary schooling, 72.0% were Swiss men, 26.0% were Swiss women. , there were 67 students from Bovernier who attended schools outside the municipality.