Heitenried (formerly in French: Essert; Arpitan: Èssèrts [eˈʃɛ] ⓘ) is a municipality in the district of Sense in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland.

It is one of the municipalities with a large majority of German speakers in the mostly French speaking Canton of Fribourg.

[5] The municipality is located in the Sense district, 15 km (9.3 mi) east of Fribourg on the border with the Canton of Bern.

It consists of the village of Heitenried and the hamlets of Scheuergraben, Schönfels, Selgiswil, Unterwinterlingen and Wiler vor Holz.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess Gules a Fleur de Lys issuant Argent and of the last.

[9] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (1,070 or 97.2%) as their first language, French is the second most common (7 or 0.6%) and Portuguese is the third (7 or 0.6%).

[9] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][13] The parish church of St. Michael is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

[9] There were 611 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.7% of the workforce.

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 67, of which 66 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production.

In the tertiary sector; 20 or 24.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 7 or 8.4% were in the movement and storage of goods, 11 or 13.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 2.4% were in the information industry, 8 or 9.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 14 or 16.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 10 or 12.0% were in education and 3 or 3.6% were in health care.

[9] From the 2000 census[update], 747 or 67.8% were Roman Catholic, while 259 or 23.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude.

The upper Secondary school is divided into gymnasium (university preparatory) and vocational programs.

After they finish the upper Secondary program, students may choose to attend a Tertiary school or continue their apprenticeship.