Hérémence

Hérémence is a municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Hérémence is first mentioned in 1195 as Aremens. Hérémence has an area, , of . Of this area, 18.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 18.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and 61.3% is unproductive land. The municipality is located in the Hérens district, on the left side of the Borgne and the Dixence rivers. The village of Hérémence is at the confluence of the two rivers. It includes the entire Dixence valley, which is one of the side valleys off the main Rhone valley. It consists of the village of Hérémence and the hamlets of Ayer, Euseigne, Mâche, Pralong, Riod and Cerise. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a Mullet Argent. Hérémence has a population () of . , 5.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -0.5%. It has changed at a rate of 7.4% due to migration and at a rate of -5.4% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (1,262 or 97.5%) as their first language, German is the second most common (18 or 1.4%) and Portuguese is the third (7 or 0.5%). There are 4 people who speak Italian. the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. The population was made up of 613 Swiss men (46.5% of the population) and 41 (3.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 629 Swiss women (47.7%) and 36 (2.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 228 or about 17.6% were born in Hérémence and lived there in 2000. There were 32 or 2.5% who were born in the same canton, while 14 or 1.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 27 or 2.1% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.6%. there were 548 people who were single and never married in the municipality.