The area was part of Italy since the Roman Empire, but it was colonized by the Germans after 1000 AD, so the Bishop of Sion bought it from the counts of Novara in 1291.

[3] Simplon has an area, as of 2011[update], of 90.9 square kilometers (35.1 sq mi).

[4] The municipality is located in the Brig district, on the south side of the Simplon Pass near the Italian border.

[4] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (322 or 96.7%) as their first language, French is the second most common (4 or 1.2%) and Italian is the third (3 or 0.9%).

[12] The Simplon Hospice was begun in 1801 on orders from Napoleon, but was not finished until 30 years later with the support of the Canons of Great Saint Bernard.

[13] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 69.29% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 175 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 65.8%.

[15] In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 174 votes were cast, of which 4 or about 2.3% were invalid.

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 24, of which 19 were in agriculture and 4 were in forestry or lumber production.

In the tertiary sector; 7 or 11.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 6.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 31 or 51.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 8.3% were in education.

[4] From the 2000 census[update], 319 or 95.8% were Roman Catholic, while 7 or 2.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

The education system in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten.

All the lower secondary students from Simplon attend their school in a neighboring municipality.

[18] The former member of the Swiss Federal Council Josef Escher was born in Simplon.