Nendaz

Nendaz is a municipality in the district of Conthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Nendaz is first mentioned in 984 as Nenda. It was also known under its German name Neind though that name is no longer used. Nendaz has an area, , of . Of this area, 27.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 31.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and 37.0% is unproductive land. The municipality is located in the middle Valais, and stretches from the left bank of the Rhone river () up to the peak of the Rosablanche (). It consists of about 15 villages and hamlets including Basse-Nendaz, Haute-Nendaz, Bieudron, Aproz, Baar, Brignon and Beuson. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, a Bend Gules between two Pomenranates. Nendaz has a population () of . , 10.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 10.6%. It has changed at a rate of 8.5% due to migration and at a rate of 1.1% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (5,029 or 94.0%) as their first language, German is the second most common (164 or 3.1%) and Portuguese is the third (45 or 0.8%). There are 23 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh. the gender distribution of the population was 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The population was made up of 2,635 Swiss men (44.2% of the population) and 368 (6.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,652 Swiss women (44.5%) and 304 (5.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 3,577 or about 66.9% were born in Nendaz and lived there in 2000. There were 759 or 14.2% who were born in the same canton, while 439 or 8.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 399 or 7.5% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.8%.