Blitzingen

Blitzingen is a former municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Blitzingen, Grafschaft, Münster-Geschinen, Niederwald and Reckingen-Gluringen merged into the municipality of Goms. Blitzingen is first mentioned in 1203 as Blicingen. Blitzingen had an area, , of . Of this area, 36.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 27.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and 34.3% is unproductive land. It consists of the village of Blitzingen and the hamlets of Ammere, Bodme, Wiler and Gadme. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, issuant from a cliff Vert a flag per fess Gules and Argent two Crosses couped counterchanged staffed of the third and finialed Or, issuant from sinister a Thunderbolt Or, in Chief two Mullets Or. The lightning bolt (blitz) may be an example of canting arms. Blitzingen had a population () of 90. , 24.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -24%. It has changed at a rate of -4.8% due to migration and at a rate of -14.4% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks German (92 or 92.9%) as their first language with the rest speaking Serbo-Croatian the gender distribution of the population was 51.9% male and 48.1% female. The population was made up of 26 Swiss men (32.9% of the population) and 15 (19.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 33 Swiss women (41.8%) and 5 (6.3%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 44 or about 44.4% were born in Blitzingen and lived there in 2000. There were 21 or 21.2% who were born in the same canton, while 11 or 11.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 21 or 21.2% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 49.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 27.3%.