Birgisch is a former municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipalities of Birgisch and Mund merged into the municipality of Naters.
History
Birgisch is first mentioned in 1232 as Burginse.
Geography
Before the merger, Birgisch had a total area of . Of this area, 37.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 46.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.0% is settled (buildings or roads) and 12.6% is unproductive land.
The former municipality is located above the right bank of the Rhone river. It consists of the village of Birgisch and numerous hamlets.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, a bend lowered wavy Argent, in chief sinister a Tower of the same lined, doored and windowed Sable.
Demographics
Birgisch had a population (as of 2010) of 241. , 4.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 0%. It has changed at a rate of -1.8% due to migration and at a rate of 1.8% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks German (207 or 95.4%) as their first language, Slovenian is the second most common (4 or 1.8%) and French is the third (2 or 0.9%).
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.9% male and 49.1% female. The population was made up of 107 Swiss men (48.6% of the population) and 5 (2.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 105 Swiss women (47.7%) and 3 (1.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 110 or about 50.7% were born in Birgisch and lived there in 2000. There were 65 or 30.0% who were born in the same canton, while 27 or 12.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 13 or 6.0% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.1%.
, there were 88 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 113 married individuals, 14 widows or widowers and 2 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 84 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 23 households that consist of only one person and 6 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 85 households that answered this question, 27.1% were households made up of just one person and there was 1 adult who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 22 married couples without children, 34 married couples with children There were 3 single parents with a child or children. There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 1 household that was made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 91 single family homes (or 72.2% of the total) out of a total of 126 inhabited buildings. There were 26 multi-family buildings (20.6%), along with 7 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (5.6%) and 2 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (1.6%).
, a total of 80 apartments (51.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 58 apartments (37.7%) were seasonally occupied and 16 apartments (10.4%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 9.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.41%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 56.68% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.93%), the SP (13.35%) and the Green Party (2.72%). In the federal election, a total of 114 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 63.0%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 95 votes were cast, of which 9 or about 9.5% were invalid. The voter participation was 53.7%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 114 votes were cast, of which 12 or about 10.5% were invalid. The voter participation was 64.0%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.