Saas-Grund 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

Visp Visp (french: Viège) is the capital of the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Geography Visp lies in the Rhône valley, at the confluence of the Vispa and the Rhône, west of Brig-Glis. Visp has an area, , of . Of ...

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. It lies east of

Lenzspitze The Lenzspitze is a mountain in the Pennine Alps in Switzerland. It is the southernmost peak on the Nadelgrat, a high-level ridge running roughly north–south, north of Dom in the Mischabel range, above the resort of Saas Fee to the east, ...

and

Dom Dom or DOM may refer to: People and fictional characters * Dom (given name), including fictional characters * Dom (surname) * Dom La Nena (born 1989), stage name of Brazilian-born cellist, singer and songwriter Dominique Pinto * Dom people, an et ...

History

Saas-Grund is first mentioned in 1438 as ''grunderro''.

Geography

Saas-Grund has an area, , of . Of this area, 11.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 12.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and 75.2% is unproductive land. The municipality is located in the Visp district. It consists of the village of Saas-Grund, 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 Unter dem Berg and Ze Laubinu and portions of the hamlets of Tamatten and Unter den Bodmen.

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 ''Vert, a bend wavy Argent in chief three Billets Or one and two, in base a Chapel Argent and a Billet Or.''

Demographics

Saas-Grund has a population () of . , 12.7% 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 -10.2%. It has changed at a rate of -10.4% due to migration and at a rate of -0.2% due to births and deaths.
accessed 3 October 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 ...

(1,068 or 91.5%) as their first language,

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

is the second most common (35 or 3.0%) and Albanian is the third (35 or 3.0%). There are 3 people who speak French, 11 people who speak

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 ...

. Of the population in the municipality, 713 or about 61.1% were born in Saas-Grund and lived there in 2000. There were 210 or 18.0% who were born in the same canton, while 73 or 6.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 137 or 11.7% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.3%. , there were 484 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 597 married individuals, 64 widows or widowers and 22 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 417 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 91 households that consist of only one person and 32 households with five or more people. , a total of 387 apartments (55.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 277 apartments (39.6%) were seasonally occupied and 35 apartments (5.0%) 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 2.7 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.4%. 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:1200 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:247 text:"247" bar:1860 from:start till:237 text:"237" bar:1870 from:start till:295 text:"295" bar:1880 from:start till:378 text:"378" bar:1888 from:start till:390 text:"390" bar:1900 from:start till:429 text:"429" bar:1910 from:start till:441 text:"441" bar:1920 from:start till:408 text:"408" bar:1930 from:start till:464 text:"464" bar:1941 from:start till:517 text:"517" bar:1950 from:start till:564 text:"564" bar:1960 from:start till:614 text:"614" bar:1970 from:start till:774 text:"774" bar:1980 from:start till:880 text:"880" bar:1990 from:start till:986 text:"986" bar:2000 from:start till:1167 text:"1,167"

Sports

It is the starting point for a small independent ski area which is also part of the combined Saastal ski region, albeit connected to the other parts of the region by postal bus, rather than dedicated skilifts. It has a gondola up to the Kreuzboden (, in two sections) and

Hohsaas Hohsaas () is a cable car station and a ski area in the Pennine Alps above Saas Grund in Valais. Although Hohsaas is not a mountain summit it still offers impressive views over the Dom on the Mischabel range and 18 four-thousand meters mounta ...

().

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 59.14% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (21.5%), the SVP (15.63%) and the SP (2.21%). In the federal election, a total of 465 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 57.7%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 679 votes were cast, of which 28 or about 4.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 85.1%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 464 votes were cast, of which 8 or about 1.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 57.9%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Saas-Grund had an unemployment rate of 2.2%. , there were 45 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 15 businesses involved in this sector. 68 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 13 businesses in this sector. 335 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 61 businesses in this sector. There were 591 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.4% 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 349. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 19, of which 15 were in agriculture and 3 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 64 of which 15 or (23.4%) were in manufacturing and 50 (78.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 266. In the tertiary sector; 34 or 12.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 36 or 13.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 94 or 35.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 11 or 4.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 13 or 4.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 12 or 4.5% were in education and 50 or 18.8% were in health care. , there were 117 workers who commuted into the municipality and 271 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 22.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 43.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 943 or 80.8% 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 38 or 3.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 35 members of an Orthodox church (or about 3.00% of the population), and there were 30 individuals (or about 2.57% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 76 (or about 6.51% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 1 individual who belonged to another church. 15 (or about 1.29% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 44 individuals (or about 3.77% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Saas-Grund about 406 or (34.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 54 or (4.6%) 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 54 who completed tertiary schooling, 70.4% were Swiss men, 13.0% were Swiss women, 9.3% were non-Swiss men. During the 2010–2011 school year there were a total of 201 students in the Saas-Grund school system. The

education system The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining education within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or early childhood education ...

in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

. During that school year, there 2 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 26 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

. In Saas-Grund there were a total of 6 classes and 100 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. There were 101 lower secondary students who attended school in Saas-Grund. All the upper secondary students attended school in another municipality. , there were 166 students in Saas-Grund who came from another municipality, while 22 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Saas-Grund is home to the ''Schul- und Gemeindebibliothek Saas Grund'' (municipal library of Saas-Grund). The library has () 5,277 books or other media, and loaned out 9,058 items in the same year. It was open a total of 118 days with average of 8 hours per week during that year.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, list of libraries
accessed 14 May 2010

References

External links

Saas-Grund on Saas-Fee Tourism
{{Authority control Ski areas and resorts in Switzerland