Ernen

Ernen is a municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. In 2005 Ernen incorporated the formerly independent municipalities of Ausserbinn, Mühlebach, and Steinhaus. In 1979, Ernen was awarded the Wakker Prize for the preservation of its architectural heritage. Ernen is first mentioned in 1214 as Aragnon. In 1220 it was mentioned as Arengnon and in 1510 it was Aernen. Ernen has an area, , of . Of this area, 36.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 35.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 27.0% is unproductive land. The municipality is located on a moraine terrace above the left side of the Rhone. It consists of the village of Ernen and the hamlet of Niederernen. On 1 October 2004 the former municipalities of Steinhaus, Ausserbinn and Mühlebach merged into the municipality of Ernen, keeping the name Ernen. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules and Argent, two Greek Crosses couped palewise counterchanged. Ernen has a population () of . In 2008, 5.2% of the population were resident foreign nationals. Over the 10 years 1999–2009, the population changed at a rate of -8.3%. It has changed at a rate of 0% due to migration and at a rate of -7.1% due to births and deaths. Most of the population in 2000 spoke German (367 or 95.3%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (5 or 1.3%) and Dutch is the third (3 or 0.8%). There are 2 people who speak French, 1 person who speaks Italian. In 2008, the sex distribution of the population was 50.1% male and 49.9% female. The population was made up of 252 Swiss men (47.8% of the population) and 12 (2.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 245 Swiss women (46.5%) and 18 (3.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 207 or about 53.8% were born in Ernen and lived there in 2000. There were 97 or 25.2% who were born in the same canton, while 48 or 12.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 26 or 6.8% born outside of Switzerland.