Mase, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Mase is a former municipality
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the district of Hérens
Hérens (district)
The district of Hérens is a district in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a population of .-Geography:Except for the municipality of Ayent, which lies on the north bank of the Rhône, the municipalities of Hérens are located in the Val d'Hérens on the south bank of the...

 in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. On 1 January 2011, the former municipalities of Vernamiège
Vernamiège
Vernamiège is a former municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municipalities of Vernamiège, Nax and Mase merged in the new municipality of Mont-Noble.-Geography:...

, Nax
Nax
Nax is a former municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municipalities of Vernamiège, Nax and Mase merged in the new municipality of Mont-Noble.-History:...

 and Mase merged in the new municipality of Mont-Noble
Mont-Noble
Mont-Noble is a municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2011 through the merger of the municipalities of Mase, Vernamiège and Nax.-History:...

.

History

Mase is first mentioned about 1100 as villa Magis. Until 1902 it was known as Mage.

Geography

Mase has an area, , of 11.1 square kilometre. Of this area, 4.04 square kilometre or 36.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 5.06 square kilometre or 45.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.41 square kilometre or 3.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km² (7.4 acre) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 1.54 square kilometre or 13.9% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.7%. Out of the forested land, 40.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 6.9% is pastures and 29.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the village is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 7.5% is unproductive vegetation and 6.4% is too rocky for vegetation.

The village is located in the Hérens district on the right bank of the Borgne and the left bank of the Rhone
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...

 in the Val d'Hérens at an elevation of 1345 m (4,412.7 ft). It consists of the village of Mase.

Coat of arms

The blazon
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...

 of the village coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is Azure, issuant from Coupeaux Vert a Pine Tree Vert trunked proper and a Chamois stantant Argent, in chief two Mullets of the last.

Demographics

Mase has a population of 215.

Most of the population speaks French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 (187 or 90.3%) as their first language, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 is the second most common (13 or 6.3%) and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 is the third (3 or 1.4%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 47.7% male and 52.3% female. The population was made up of 108 Swiss men (46.0% of the population) and 4 (1.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 114 Swiss women (48.5%) and 9 (3.8%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the village 120 or about 58.0% were born in Mase and lived there in 2000. There were 37 or 17.9% who were born in the same canton, while 24 or 11.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 16 or 7.7% were born outside of Switzerland.

, there were 73 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 107 married individuals, 20 widows or widowers and 7 individuals who are divorced.

There were 34 households that consist of only one person and 4 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 99 households that answered this question, 34.3% were households made up of just one person and there were 3 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 30 married couples without children, 23 married couples with children There were 3 single parents with a child or children. There were 5 households that were made up of unrelated people and 1 household that was made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 219 single family homes (or 81.7% of the total) out of a total of 268 inhabited buildings. There were 33 multi-family buildings (12.3%), along with 6 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (2.2%) and 10 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (3.7%).

, a total of 92 apartments (28.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 209 apartments (65.1%) were seasonally occupied and 20 apartments (6.2%) were empty.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Sights

The entire village of Mase is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...


Politics

In the 2007 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...

 the most popular party was the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...

 which received 41.05% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (21.53%), the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 (16.98%) and the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....

 (13.35%). In the federal election, a total of 162 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 was 78.6%.

In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
Conseil d'Etat (Switzerland)
In Switzerland, Conseil d'Etat is the name of the council constituting the cantonal government of French-speaking cantons. It is not to be confused with the Conseil des États which is a chamber of the Swiss parliament....

 election a total of 124 votes were cast, of which 8 or about 6.5% 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
Swiss Council of States election, 2007
Elections were held to the Council of States of Switzerland in October and November 2007 as part of the 2007 federal election. All 46 members of the Council of States were elected from all cantons of Switzerland. The first round was held on 21 October...

 election a total of 156 votes were cast, of which 4 or about 2.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 81.3%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Mase had an unemployment rate of 0%. , there were people employed in the primary economic sector and about businesses involved in this sector. No one was employed in the secondary sector or the tertiary sector. There were 83 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.8% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...

 jobs was 36. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 4, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 14, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 18. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 72.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, .

, there were 7 workers who commuted into the village and 61 workers who commuted away. The village is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.7 workers leaving the village for every one entering. Of the working population, % used public transportation to get to work, and % used a private car.

Religion

From the , 175 or 84.5% were Roman Catholic, while 8 or 3.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
Swiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...

. There were 5 (or about 2.42% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. 11 (or about 5.31% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....

 or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, and 8 individuals (or about 3.86% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Mase about 66 or (31.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 10 or (4.8%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

). Of the 10 who completed tertiary schooling, 90.0% were Swiss men, 10.0% were Swiss women.

, there were 25 students from Mase who attended schools outside the village.
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