Massongex (; frp, Massongié) 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 Saint-Maurice, in the canton of Valais, Switzerland.

History

Massongex is first mentioned in 1226 as ''Bernardus de Massunge''.

Geography

Massongex has an area, , of . Of this area, or 33.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 47.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 15.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 3.0% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.6% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 6.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.8%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.4% of the area Out of the forested land, 42.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 20.8% is used for growing crops and 10.4% is pastures and 2.0% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Saint-Maurice district, on the left side of the Rhone river. It consists of the village of Massongex and eight

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 ...

including Daviaz.

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 ''Gules, three Towers Argent masoned, windowed and doored Sable.''

Demographics

Massongex has a population () of . , 16.4% 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 2.6%. It has changed at a rate of 8.4% due to migration and at a rate of 4.8% due to births and deaths.
accessed 22-September-2011 Most of the population () speaks French (1,218 or 92.3%) as their first language,

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 second most common (28 or 2.1%) and

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 ...

is the third (24 or 1.8%). , the population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. The population was made up of 641 Swiss men (42.0% of the population) and 125 (8.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 643 Swiss women (42.2%) and 116 (7.6%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 434 or about 32.9% were born in Massongex and lived there in 2000. There were 377 or 28.6% who were born in the same canton, while 291 or 22.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 186 or 14.1% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 11.2%. , there were 557 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 652 married individuals, 59 widows or widowers and 51 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 522 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 157 households that consist of only one person and 39 households with five or more people. , a total of 490 apartments (76.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 130 apartments (20.3%) were seasonally occupied and 20 apartments (3.1%) 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 9.8 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.79%. 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:1400 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1798 from:start till:214 text:"214" bar:1850 from:start till:503 text:"503" bar:1860 from:start till:588 text:"588" bar:1870 from:start till:606 text:"606" bar:1880 from:start till:554 text:"554" bar:1888 from:start till:521 text:"521" bar:1900 from:start till:600 text:"600" bar:1910 from:start till:540 text:"540" bar:1920 from:start till:581 text:"581" bar:1930 from:start till:654 text:"654" bar:1941 from:start till:623 text:"623" bar:1950 from:start till:659 text:"659" bar:1960 from:start till:644 text:"644" bar:1970 from:start till:969 text:"969" bar:1980 from:start till:888 text:"888" bar:1990 from:start till:1139 text:"1,139" bar:2000 from:start till:1319 text:"1,319"

Heritage sites of national significance

The Tarnaiae, a Celtic and

Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

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 40.12% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (19.34%), the SVP (18.48%) and the SP (15.21%). In the federal election, a total of 535 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 53.7%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 484 votes were cast, of which 20 or about 4.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 47.8%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 522 votes were cast, of which 30 or about 5.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 53.4%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Massongex had an unemployment rate of 4.6%. , there were 27 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 12 businesses involved in this sector. 102 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 21 businesses in this sector. 120 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 22 businesses in this sector. There were 628 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.2% 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 221. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 20, of which 19 were in agriculture and 1 was in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 97 of which 23 or (23.7%) were in manufacturing and 63 (64.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 104. In the tertiary sector; 14 or 13.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in the movement and storage of goods, 10 or 9.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 8 or 7.7% were in the information industry, 4 or 3.8% were the insurance or financial industry, 10 or 9.6% were in education and 36 or 34.6% were in health care. , there were 139 workers who commuted into the municipality and 528 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 3.6% of the workforce coming into Massongex are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 73.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 1,010 or 76.6% 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 140 or 10.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 5 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.38% of the population), and there were 24 individuals (or about 1.82% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 individuals (or about 0.15% of the population) who were

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and 43 (or about 3.26% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 68 (or about 5.16% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 37 individuals (or about 2.81% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Massongex about 477 or (36.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 103 or (7.8%) 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 103 who completed tertiary schooling, 58.3% were Swiss men, 25.2% were Swiss women, 9.7% were non-Swiss men and 6.8% were non-Swiss women. , there was one student in Massongex who came from another municipality, while 102 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Massongex is home to the ''Bibliothèque communale'' library. The library has () 4,340 books or other media, and loaned out 3,671 items in the same year. It was open a total of 132 days with average of 6 hours per week during that year.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, list of libraries
accessed 14 May 2010

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Municipalities of Valais Cultural property of national significance in Valais