Agarn

Agarn (Walliser German: Agaru) is a municipality in the district of Leukin the German speaking part of the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

Agarn is first mentioned in 1252 as Aert. In 1267 it was mentioned as Ayert and in the 16th century it was known as Agaren. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.7%. Out of the forested land, 30.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 4.8% is used for growing crops and 7.3% is pastures, while 2.1% is used for orchards or vine crops and 2.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. Of the unproductive areas, 9.3% is unproductive vegetation, 33.3% is too rocky for vegetation and 1.8% of the land is covered by glaciers.

Agarn has a population of as of 2008, 8.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 0.9%. It has changed at a rate of 1.7% due to migration and at a rate of 1.9% due to births and deaths. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (684 or 90.2%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (35 or 4.6%) and Italian is the third (12 or 1.6%). There are 10 people who speak French. Of the population in the municipality 420 or about 55.4% were born in Agarn and lived there in 2000. There were 210 or 27.7% who were born in the same canton, while 46 or 6.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 68 or 9.0% were born outside of Switzerland. as of 2000, there were 284 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. In 2000, a total of 268 apartments (90.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 22 apartments (7.4%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (2.0%) were empty.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 64.49% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (23.06%), the SVP (10.62%) and the Green Party (0.79%). In the federal election, a total of 462 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 81.3%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 448 votes were cast, of which 24 or about 5.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 79.2%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 455 votes were cast, of which 20 or about 4.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 80.3%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

as of 2010, Agarn had an unemployment rate of 1.6%. as of 2008, there were 27 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 15 businesses involved in this sector. 96 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 15 businesses in this sector. 93 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 26 businesses in this sector. In 2000, there were 81 workers who commuted into the municipality and 260 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 20.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 60.2% used a private car. During that school year, there was one kindergarten class (KG1 or KG2) and 9 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Agarn there were a total of 5 classes and 54 students in the primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower and upper secondary students from Agarn attend their school in a neighboring municipality. as of 2000, there was one student in Agarn who came from another municipality, while 58 residents attended schools outside the municipality.