Ferden is a

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

in the district of

Raron Raron () is a municipality in the district of Raron in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Raron is first mentioned around 1101–1200 as ''Rarogni''. In 1146 it was mentioned as ''Rarun''. A settlement on the Heidnischbiel, a buria ...

in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Besides the village of Ferden itself, the municipality includes the hamlet of

Goppenstein Goppenstein (1,216 m) is a Swiss hamlet in the canton of Valais, located in the lower Lötschental and traversed by the Lonza river. It belongs to the municipality of Ferden. Goppenstein is mainly known for its railway station on the Lötschberg ...

, and the alpine settlements of Faldum, Resti and Kummen.

History

Ferden is first mentioned in 1380 as ''Verdan''.

Geography

Ferden has an area, , of . Of this area, or 17.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 19.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 0.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 61.1% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.5%. Out of the forested land, 14.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.3% is pastures and 16.4% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.4% is in lakes and 0.8% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 17.5% is unproductive vegetation, 41.8% is too rocky for vegetation and 1.8% of the land is covered by glaciers. The municipality is located in the Westlich Raron district. It is at the bottom of the Lötschen valley at an elevation of . It consists of the ''haufendorf'' village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Ferden, the hamlet of

, and the alpine settlements of Faldum, Resti and Kummen. Stausee Ferden is a reservoir on the Lonza River.

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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

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 last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

is ''Per fess by a bar wavy Argent, in chief Gules a Cross bottony Argent and in base Vert the Host Argent radiating Or issuant from a Cup Or.''

Demographics

Ferden has a population () of . , 1.1% 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 -17.9%. It has changed at a rate of -5.3% due to migration and at a rate of -6.3% due to births and deaths.
accessed 13-October-2011 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

(280 or 97.9%) as their first language,

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

is the second most common (4 or 1.4%) and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

is the third (1 or 0.3%). , the population was 51.5% male and 48.5% female. The population was made up of 135 Swiss men (51.5% of the population) and (0.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 125 Swiss women (47.7%) and 2 (0.8%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 214 or about 74.8% were born in Ferden and lived there in 2000. There were 43 or 15.0% who were born in the same canton, while 17 or 5.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 10 or 3.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.5%. , there were 145 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 123 married individuals, 16 widows or widowers and 2 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 112 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 36 households that consist of only one person and 9 households with five or more people. , a total of 106 apartments (63.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 46 apartments (27.5%) were seasonally occupied and 15 apartments (9.0%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 4.02%. 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:1300 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:1850 from:start till:178 text:"178" bar:1860 from:start till:204 text:"204" bar:1870 from:start till:200 text:"200" bar:1880 from:start till:216 text:"216" bar:1888 from:start till:211 text:"211" bar:1900 from:start till:249 text:"249" bar:1910 from:start till:1214 text:"1,214" bar:1920 from:start till:260 text:"260" bar:1930 from:start till:282 text:"282" bar:1941 from:start till:358 text:"358" bar:1950 from:start till:349 text:"349" bar:1960 from:start till:360 text:"360" bar:1970 from:start till:382 text:"382" bar:1980 from:start till:330 text:"330" bar:1990 from:start till:317 text:"317" bar:2000 from:start till:286 text:"286"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 75.24% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (15.88%), the SP (6.28%) and the FDP (1.66%). In the federal election, a total of 125 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 54.1%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 156 votes were cast, of which 15 or about 9.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 67.0%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 125 votes were cast, of which 3 or about 2.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 54.1%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Ferden had an unemployment rate of 0.8%. , there were 26 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 6 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 2 businesses in this sector. 68 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 ...

, with 10 businesses in this sector. There were 145 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.7% of the workforce. the total number of

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement 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 use ...

jobs was 67. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 9, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 5, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 53. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 3.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 37 or 69.8% were in the movement and storage of goods and 8 or 15.1% were in a hotel or restaurant. , there were 75 workers who commuted into the municipality and 107 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 34.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 43.4% used a private car.

Transport

Goppenstein railway station Goppenstein is a railway station in the Swiss canton of Valais and municipality of Ferden. The station is located on the Lötschberg line of the BLS AG, just outside the southern portal of the Lötschberg tunnel. It takes its name from the nea ...

is within the municipality, is on the Lötschberg line, and is served by trains to

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

and

Brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...

. It is also the southern terminus of a

car carrying shuttle train A car shuttle train, or (sometimes) car-carrying train, is a shuttle train used to transport accompanied cars (automobiles), and usually also bicycles and other types of road vehicles, for a relatively short distance. Car shuttle trains usuall ...

to Kandersteg station via the

Lötschberg tunnel The Lötschberg Tunnel is a long railway tunnel on the Lötschberg Line, which connects Spiez and Brig at the northern end of the Simplon Tunnel cutting through the Bernese Alps of Switzerland. Its ends are at the towns of Kandersteg (2 k ...

. The municipality straddles the road up the

Lötschental The Lötschental () is the largest valley on the northern side of the Rhône valley in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It lies in the Bernese Alps, with the running down the length of the valley from its source within the Langgletscher ...

valley from Steg to Fafleralp. A

PostAuto PostAuto Switzerland, PostBus Ltd. (known as in Swiss Standard German (), in Swiss French (), in Swiss Italian (), and in Romansh () is a subsidiary company of the Swiss Post, which provides regional and rural bus services throughout Switz ...

bus service runs along the road as far as Fafleralp, connecting the upper valley settlements, including Blatten village, to Goppenstein station, with some buses continuing further down the valley to Steg.

Religion

From the , 274 or 95.8% were

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, while 9 or 3.1% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

. 1 (or about 0.35% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 2 individuals (or about 0.70% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Ferden about 89 or (31.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

, and 18 or (6.3%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

or a ''

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

''). Of the 18 who completed tertiary schooling, 83.3% were Swiss men, 11.1% were Swiss women. , there were 16 students in Ferden who came from another municipality, while 26 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of Valais