Ormont-Dessous

Ormont-Dessous is a municipality of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Aigle.

[3] Ormont-Dessous has an area, as of 2009[update], of 64.07 square kilometers (24.74 sq mi).

[4] The municipality is located in the Aigle district, in the middle of the Grande-Eau valley.

It consists of the villages of Ormont, Dessous, Le Sépey and La Forclaz as well as scattered settlements at Cergnat, Matélon, La Comballaz and Les Voëttes.

This coat of arms might be an example of canting with Ormont-Dessous being read as Or-Mont-Dessous or Gold(en)-Mount-Below.

[8] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks French (1,000 or 93.0%), with German being second most common (33 or 3.1%) and Portuguese being third (16 or 1.5%).

[7] The age distribution, as of 2009[update], in Ormont-Dessous is; 91 children or 9.1% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 122 teenagers or 12.2% are between 10 and 19.

[8] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][12] The Pont des Planches is listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.

The entire village of La Forclaz is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

[13] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 35.26% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 263 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 33.6%.

[8] There were 468 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.2% of the workforce.

In the tertiary sector; 22 or 16.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 7.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 40 or 30.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 27 or 20.3% were in education and 18 or 13.5% were in health care.

[8] From the 2000 census[update], 184 or 17.1% were Roman Catholic, while 658 or 61.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts.

[17] During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 205 children of which 96 children (46.8%) received subsidized pre-school care.

The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years.

Ormont-Dessous/Dessus seen from Valais
Aerial view by Walter Mittelholzer (1919)