Massongex

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. 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 including Daviaz. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms 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. 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. Most of the population () speaks French (1,218 or 92.3%) as their first language, German is the second most common (28 or 2.1%) and Italian is the third (24 or 1.8%). 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. , there were 522 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 9.8 new units per 1000 residents. 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 vicus is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election 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 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 and there were 21 businesses in this sector. 120 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 22 businesses in this sector. , 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. 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, 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, 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 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. ==References==