The railroad station was built in the village of Oey, which grew into the population and administrative center of the municipality. In 1963 the municipality built a hotel and sport complex to encourage further tourism. Today, tourism is an important component in the local economy. However, agriculture still remains important and Diemtigen has 107 seasonal alpine pastures, the most of any Swiss municipality. The village church of St. Nicholas in Diemtigen village was first mentioned in 1314 and was a filial church of the parish church in Schwenden. The original building was extended in 1490. In 1527 the valley adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and the village church became a parish church for the new Reformed parish of Diemtigen. Geography Diemtigen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 48.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 30.4% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 1.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 19.4% is unproductive land. During the same year, housing and buildings made up 0.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.8%. A total of 25.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 9.5% is pasturage and 38.2% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 9.1% is unproductive vegetation and 10.3% is too rocky for vegetation. The municipality is located in the Diemtig valley and several neighboring valleys. It consists of the settlements of Oey, Diemtigen, Bächlen, Horben, Riedern, Entschwil, Zwischenflüh, Schwenden and the "Sporthalle Diemtigtal" as well as a number of small settlements in alpine meadows and forests above the valleys. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Niedersimmental, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Frutigen-Niedersimmental. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules and Argent a Castle embattled counterchanged. Demographics Diemtigen has a population () of . , 3.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -0.7%. Migration accounted for -1.4%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.2%. Most of the population () speaks German (2,017 or 98.2%) as their first language,