Saas-Grund

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 of Unter dem Berg and Ze Laubinu and portions of the hamlets of Tamatten and Unter den Bodmen. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms 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. 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. Most of the population () speaks German (1,068 or 91.5%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian 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. , there were 417 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.7 new units per 1000 residents. 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 (). ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election 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 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 and there were 13 businesses in this sector. 335 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 61 businesses in this sector. , 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. 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, 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 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 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. 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. == References ==