of 382 in 1850. A custom in Bosco/Gurin (found also in the Avers valley, Graubünden) was to build houses with a Seelabalga ("soul-beam"). This was a sliding wooden door covering a small round hole through the wall, which was opened to allow the soul of a deceased inhabitant to depart. Geography Bosco is located in the Vallemaggia district, and the highest municipality in Ticino at an elevation of . Bosco/Gurin has an area, , of . Of this area, or 3.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 27.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 0.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 42.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.6%. Out of the forested land, 11.6% of the total land area is heavily forested, while 12.0% is covered in small trees and shrubbery and 4.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 2.9% is used for growing crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 22.3% is unproductive vegetation and 19.7% is too rocky for vegetation. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a lion rampant langued gules and holding a letter B also gules. Demographics Bosco/Gurin has a population () of . , 7.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -26%. Most of the population () speaks Italian language (37 or 52.1%), with German being second most common (23 or 32.4%) and Romansh being third (7 or 9.9%). There are 2 people who speak French. , the gender distribution of the population was 61.1% male and 38.9% female. The population was made up of 31 Swiss men (57.4% of the population), and 2 (3.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 19 Swiss women (35.2%), and 2 (3.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 37 or about 52.1% were born in Bosco/Gurin and lived there in 2000. There were 20 or 28.2% who were born in the same canton, while 10 or 14.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 2 or 2.8% were born outside of Switzerland. In there was 1 death of a Swiss citizen. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population