Goms District

{{Infobox settlement |name = Goms |native_name = Bezirk Goms |settlement_type = District |image_skyline = 20100823 198 Reckingen.jpg |image_caption = Landscape of Goms, here the village of Reckingen |image_flag = CHE Goms Flag.svg |image_shield = CHE Goms COA.svg |image_map = {{Swiss subdivision OSM map|district}} |subdivision_type = [[Countries of the world|Country]] |subdivision_name = {{CHE}} |subdivision_type2 = [[Cantons of Switzerland|Canton]] |subdivision_name2 = {{Flag|Valais}} |subdivision_type3 = Seat |subdivision_name3 = [[Münster-Geschinen|Münster]] |area_total_km2 = 588.3 |area_footnotes = |population_as_of = {{Swiss populations Y|CH-VS}} |population_total = {{Swiss populations NC|CH-VS| B2304}} |population_footnotes = |population_density_km2 = auto |timezone = [[Central European Time|CET]] |utc_offset = +1 |timezone_DST = [[Central European Summer Time|CEST]] |utc_offset_DST = +2 |blank_name_sec1 = Municipalities |blank_info_sec1 = 8 }} '''Goms''' ({{langx|fr|District de Conches}}) is a district of the [[Cantons of Switzerland|canton]] of [[Valais]] in [[Switzerland]]. It covers a larger area than its geographical counterpart, the geographical region of Goms, namely the upper most part of the Rhône valley between its source and [[Brig-Glis|Brig]]. It has a population of {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|B2304}} (as of {{Swiss populations date|CH-VS}}).{{Swiss populations ref|CH-VS}}

==Municipalities== It comprises the following [[Municipalities of Switzerland|municipalities]]:

{| class="wikitable" ! Municipality ! Population ({{Swiss populations date|CH-VS}}){{Swiss populations ref|CH-VS}} ! Area km2<ref>[http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/02/03/blank/data/gemeindedaten.html Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics] 2009 data {{in lang|de}} accessed 25 March 2010</ref> |- | [[Bellwald]] || align="center" | {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|6052}}|| align="center" | 13.69 |- | [[Binn]] || align="center" | {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|6054}}|| align="center" | 65.03 |- | [[Ernen]] || align="center" | {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|6056}}|| align="center" | 35.38 |- | [[Fiesch]] || align="center" | {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|6057}}|| align="center" | 11.26 |- | [[Fieschertal]] || align="center" | {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|6058}}|| align="center" | 172.96 |- | [[Goms, Valais|Goms]] || align="center" | {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|6077}}|| align="center" | 129.0 |- | [[Lax, Switzerland|Lax]] || align="center" | {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|6061}}|| align="center" | 5.02 |- | [[Obergoms]] || align="center" | {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|6076}}|| align="center" | 155.83 |- | bgcolor="#EFEFEF" | '''Total''' || bgcolor="#EFEFEF" align="center"|{{Swiss populations|CH-VS|B2304}} | bgcolor="#EFEFEF" align="center" | '''588.11''' |}

==Coat of arms and flag== The [[blazon]] of the municipal coat of arms and flag is ''Per fess Gules and Argent, two Crosses pattee counterchanged.''<ref>[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ch-vs-go.html Flags of the World.com] accessed 24-August-2011</ref>

==Demographics== Goms has a population ({{as of|{{Swiss populations YM|CH-VS}}|lc=on}}) of {{Swiss populations|CH-VS|B2304}}.{{Swiss populations ref|CH-VS}} Most of the population ({{as of|2000|lc=on}}) speaks [[German language|German]] (4,401 or 92.8%) as their first language, [[Serbo-Croatian]] is the second most common (179 or 3.8%) and [[Albanian language|Albanian]] is the third (41 or 0.9%). There are 29 people who speak [[French language|French]], 12 people who speak [[Italian language|Italian]].<ref name=STAT2000/>

{{as of|2008}}, the gender distribution of the population was 51.0% male and 49.0% female. The population was made up of 2,113 Swiss men (44.8% of the population) and 292 (6.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,036 Swiss women (43.2%) and 274 (5.8%) non-Swiss women.<ref name=VS_Pop>[http://www.vs.ch/Navig/navig.asp?MenuID=14752 Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls] {{in lang|de|fr}} accessed 24 August 2011</ref> Of the population in the district 2,454 or about 51.7% were born in Goms and lived there in 2000. There were 1,179 or 24.9% who were born in the same canton, while 488 or 10.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 529 or 11.2% were born outside of Switzerland.<ref name=STAT2000/>

{{as of|2000}}, there were 1,896 people who were single and never married in the district. There were 2,434 married individuals, 309 widows or widowers and 104 individuals who are divorced.<ref name=STAT2000>[http://www.pxweb.bfs.admin.ch/Database/German_40%20-%20Eidgen%C3%B6ssische%20Volksz%C3%A4hlung/40.3%20-%202000/40.3%20-%202000.asp?lang=1&prod=40&secprod=3&openChild=true STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140409212530/http://www.pxweb.bfs.admin.ch/Database/German_40%20-%20Eidgen%C3%B6ssische%20Volksz%C3%A4hlung/40.3%20-%202000/40.3%20-%202000.asp?lang=1&prod=40&secprod=3&openChild=true |date=2014-04-09 }} {{in lang|de}} accessed 2 February 2011</ref>

There were 609 households that consist of only one person and 145 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,969 households that answered this question, 30.9% were households made up of just one person and there were 23 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 520 married couples without children, 638 married couples with children There were 76 single parents with a child or children. There were 45 households that were made up of unrelated people and 58 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.<ref name=STAT2000/><ref name=Housing>[http://www.pxweb.bfs.admin.ch/Database/German_09%20-%20Bau-%20und%20Wohnungswesen/09.2%20-%20Geb%C3%A4ude%20und%20Wohnungen/09.2%20-%20Geb%C3%A4ude%20und%20Wohnungen.asp?lang=1&prod=09&secprod=2&openChild=true Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907111534/http://www.pxweb.bfs.admin.ch/Database/German_09%20-%20Bau-%20und%20Wohnungswesen/09.2%20-%20Geb%C3%A4ude%20und%20Wohnungen/09.2%20-%20Geb%C3%A4ude%20und%20Wohnungen.asp?lang=1&prod=09&secprod=2&openChild=true |date=2014-09-07 }} {{in lang|de}} accessed 28 January 2011</ref>

The historical population is given in the following chart:<ref>[http://www.pxweb.bfs.admin.ch/Database/German_40%20-%20Eidgen%C3%B6ssische%20Volksz%C3%A4hlung/40.4%20-%201850-2000/40.4%20-%201850-2000.asp?lang=1&prod=40&secprod=4&openChild=true Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140930162751/http://www.pxweb.bfs.admin.ch/Database/German_40%20-%20Eidgen%C3%B6ssische%20Volksz%C3%A4hlung/40.4%20-%201850-2000/40.4%20-%201850-2000.asp?lang=1&prod=40&secprod=4&openChild=true |date=2014-09-30 }} {{in lang|de}} accessed 29 January 2011</ref> <timeline> 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:4800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:200 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:4102 text:"4,102" bar:1860 from:start till:4449 text:"4,449" bar:1870 from:start till:4409 text:"4,409" bar:1880 from:start till:4445 text:"4,445" bar:1888 from:start till:4192 text:"4,192" bar:1900 from:start till:4204 text:"4,204" bar:1910 from:start till:4145 text:"4,145" bar:1920 from:start till:4037 text:"4,037" bar:1930 from:start till:4215 text:"4,215" bar:1941 from:start till:4518 text:"4,518" bar:1950 from:start till:4489 text:"4,489" bar:1960 from:start till:4457 text:"4,457" bar:1970 from:start till:4090 text:"4,090" bar:1980 from:start till:4294 text:"4,294" bar:1990 from:start till:4523 text:"4,523" bar:2000 from:start till:4743 text:"4,743" </timeline>

==Mergers and name changes== On 1 October 2000 the former municipalities of Biel (VS), Ritzingen and Selkingen merged to form the new municipality of Grafschaft, and the Kommunanz of Gluringen/Ritzingen changed its name to Kommunanz Gluringen/Grafschaft.

On 1 October 2004 the former municipalities of Geschinen and Münster (VS) merged to form the new municipality of Münster-Geschinen, the former municipalities of Gluringen and Reckingen (VS) merged to form the new municipality of Reckingen-Gluringen and the former municipalities of Steinhaus, Ausserbinn and Mühlebach merged into the municipality of [[Ernen]].

On 1 January 2009 the former municipalities of Ulrichen, Obergesteln and Oberwald merged to form the new municipality of Obergoms.<ref name=Mutation>[http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/infothek/nomenklaturen/blank/blank/gem_liste/02.html Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz] {{in lang|de}} accessed 4 April 2011</ref>

On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of [[Blitzingen]], [[Grafschaft, Switzerland|Grafschaft]], [[Münster-Geschinen]], [[Niederwald, Switzerland|Niederwald]] and [[Reckingen-Gluringen]] merged to form the new municipality of [[Goms, Valais|Goms]].

==Politics== In the [[2007 Swiss federal election|2007 federal election]] the most popular party was the [[Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland|CVP]] which received 62.28% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the [[Swiss People's Party|SVP]] (17.54%), the [[Social Democratic Party of Switzerland|SP]] (12.83%) and the [[FDP.The Liberals|FDP]] (4.76%). In the federal election, a total of 2,014 votes were cast, and the [[voter turnout]] was 55.3%.<ref>[http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/17/02/blank/data/04/03.html Swiss Federal Statistical Office, ''Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton''] {{in lang|de}} accessed 28 May 2010</ref>

In the 2009 [[Conseil d'État (Switzerland)|Conseil d'État/Staatsrat]] election a total of 1,833 votes were cast, of which 169 or about 9.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 52.5%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%.<ref>[http://www.vs.ch/Navig/navig.asp?MenuID=4363&Language=de&link= Staatsratswahlen vom 1. März 2009] {{in lang|de}} accessed 24 August 2011</ref> In the 2007 [[Swiss Council of States election, 2007|Swiss Council of States election]] a total of 2,005 votes were cast, of which 60 or about 3.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 56.1%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.<ref>[http://www.vs.ch/navig/navig.asp?MenuID=4360&RefMenuID=0&RefServiceID=0 Ständeratswahl 2007] {{in lang|de}} accessed 24 August 2011</ref>

==Religion== From the {{as of|2000|alt=2000 census}}, 4,029 or 84.9% were [[Roman Catholic]], while 243 or 5.1% belonged to the [[Swiss Reformed Church]]. Of the rest of the population, there were 160 [[Orthodoxy#Christianity|members of an Orthodox church]] (or about 3.37% of the population), and there were 17 individuals (or about 0.36% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 86 (or about 1.81% of the population) who were [[Islam]]ic. 110 (or about 2.32% of the population) belonged to no church, are [[Agnosticism|agnostic]] or [[Atheism|atheist]], and 106 individuals (or about 2.23% of the population) did not answer the question.<ref name=STAT2000/>

==Education== In Goms about 1,712 or (36.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory [[Education in Switzerland#Secondary|upper secondary education]], and 346 or (7.3%) have completed additional higher education (either [[List of universities in Switzerland|University]] or a ''[[Fachhochschule]]''). Of the 346 who completed tertiary schooling, 71.4% were Swiss men, 12.7% were Swiss women, 9.2% were non-Swiss men and 6.6% were non-Swiss women.<ref name=STAT2000/>

==Sports== [[Goms cross-country skiing trail]]: Goms is popular for [[cross-country skiing]] and offers a network of cross-country skiing trails of around 100 km.

==References== {{Commons category|Goms District}} {{Reflist}}

{{Coord|46.45|N|8.3|E|source:nowiki_region:CH_scale:200000|display=title}}

[[Category:Districts of Valais]]