Bellwald

Bellwald was first used to refer to the nearby mountain 1273 Beliwalt and 1293 Belwalt. The name then came to mean the main village below the mountain. The village was first mentioned in 1374 as Zblattun. ==Geography==

Bellwald has an area, , of . Of this area, 49.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 19.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and 26.2% is unproductive land. It lies at and is the highest village in Goms, or the upper Rhône river valley. The municipality consists of scattered settlements between the Rhône and Fiescher valley. It consists of the village of Bellwald and the hamlets of Ried, Eggen, Bodmen and Fürgangen. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, issuant from Coupeaux Vert a Pine tree of the same trunked Maroon. ==Demographics==

Bellwald has a population () of . , 15.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -6.5%. It has changed at a rate of -3.3% due to migration and at a rate of 2.4% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks German (375 or 87.8%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (16 or 3.7%) and Albanian is the third (12 or 2.8%). There are 3 people who speak French, 1 person who speaks Italian. Of the population in the municipality 217 or about 50.8% were born in Bellwald and lived there in 2000. There were 69 or 16.2% who were born in the same canton, while 59 or 13.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 71 or 16.6% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 175 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. , a total of 158 apartments (20.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 570 apartments (72.2%) were seasonally occupied and 62 apartments (7.8%) were empty. 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:430 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:90 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:18 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:266 text:"266" bar:1860 from:start till:287 text:"287" bar:1870 from:start till:293 text:"293" bar:1880 from:start till:308 text:"308" bar:1888 from:start till:290 text:"290" bar:1900 from:start till:285 text:"285" bar:1910 from:start till:251 text:"251" bar:1920 from:start till:264 text:"264" bar:1930 from:start till:275 text:"275" bar:1941 from:start till:297 text:"297" bar:1950 from:start till:265 text:"265" bar:1960 from:start till:253 text:"253" bar:1970 from:start till:258 text:"258" bar:1980 from:start till:285 text:"285" bar:1990 from:start till:310 text:"310" bar:2000 from:start till:427 text:"427" bar:2018 from:start till:378 text:"378" ==Sights==

The entire hamlet of Bodma is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. Image:Bellwald- Aussicht.jpg Image:Luftbild Goms.jpg Image:3661 - Bellwald viewed from Eggishorn.JPG ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 56.51% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (18.89%), the SP (17.91%) and the FDP (4.28%). In the federal election, a total of 167 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 54.4%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 154 votes were cast, of which 16 or about 10.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 53.1%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 165 votes were cast, of which 5 or about 3.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 55.0%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%. ==Economy==

, Bellwald had an unemployment rate of 3.8%. , there were 19 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 48 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 7 businesses in this sector. 118 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 25 businesses in this sector. , there were 43 workers who commuted into the municipality and 51 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 11.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 36.3% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 332 or 77.8% were Roman Catholic, while 28 or 6.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.87% of the population), and there was 1 individual who belongs to another Christian church. There were 27 (or about 6.32% of the population) who were Islamic. 20 (or about 4.68% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 11 individuals (or about 2.58% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Bellwald about 154 or (36.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 39 or (9.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 39 who completed tertiary schooling, 46.2% were Swiss men, 15.4% were Swiss women, 23.1% were non-Swiss men and 15.4% were non-Swiss women. During that school year, there was one kindergarten class (KG1 or KG2) and 4 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Bellwald there were a total of 2 classes and 21 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. All the lower secondary students from Bellwald attend their school in a neighboring municipality. All the upper secondary students attended school in another municipality. , there were 32 students in Bellwald who came from another municipality, while 10 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==