, the gender distribution of the population was 52.4% male and 47.6% female. The population was made up of 521 Swiss men (49.5% of the population) and 30 (2.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 479 Swiss women (45.5%) and 22 (2.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 350 or about 36.2% were born in Messen and lived there in 2000. There were 112 or 11.6% who were born in the same canton, while 442 or 45.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 37 or 3.8% were born outside of Switzerland.