Ardon, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Ardon is a municipality
in the district of Conthey
in the canton
of Valais
in Switzerland
.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 25.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.3% is used for growing crops, while 13.8% is used for orchards or vine crops and 4.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 8.6% is unproductive vegetation and 32.2% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located on the alluvial fan
of the Lizerne, to the right of the Rhone
river. It is about 10 km (6.2 mi) from Sion
.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Gules, a Key Or and a Key Argent in saltire.
Most of the population speaks French
(1,859 or 81.0%) as their first language, Portuguese
is the second most common (150 or 6.5%) and German
is the third (59 or 2.6%). There are 41 people who speak Italian
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.5% male and 50.5% female. The population was made up of 807 Swiss men (31.6% of the population) and 458 (17.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 892 Swiss women (34.9%) and 396 (15.5%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 839 or about 36.6% were born in Ardon and lived there in 2000. There were 554 or 24.1% who were born in the same canton, while 186 or 8.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 564 or 24.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 12.5%.
, there were 972 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,126 married individuals, 115 widows or widowers and 82 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.63 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.63 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 59.7% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
or a rent-to-own agreement). , there were 847 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.
There were 220 households that consist of only one person and 70 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 873 households that answered this question, 25.2% were households made up of just one person and there were 9 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 215 married couples without children, 333 married couples with children There were 60 single parents with a child or children. There were 10 households that were made up of unrelated people and 26 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 351 single family homes (or 65.1% of the total) out of a total of 539 inhabited buildings. There were 115 multi-family buildings (21.3%), along with 45 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (8.3%) and 28 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.2%).
, a total of 764 apartments (80.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 150 apartments (15.9%) were seasonally occupied and 30 apartments (3.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 7.8 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.09%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the FDP
which received 40.59% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
(32.99%), the SP
(10.72%) and the SVP
(10.3%). In the federal election, a total of 893 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 64.1%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
election a total of 725 votes were cast, of which 50 or about 6.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 52.1%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
election a total of 864 votes were cast, of which 70 or about 8.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 63.0%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 445. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 61, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 127 of which 109 or (85.8%) were in manufacturing and 17 (13.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 257. In the tertiary sector; 129 or 50.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 8 or 3.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 24 or 9.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 1.9% were in the information industry, 8 or 3.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 4.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 19 or 7.4% were in education and 19 or 7.4% were in health care.
, there were 306 workers who commuted into the municipality and 743 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 12.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 68.7% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 members of an Orthodox church
(or about 0.35% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.09% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
, and there were 14 individuals (or about 0.61% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 144 (or about 6.27% of the population) who were Islam
ic. There were 11 individuals who were Buddhist
, 9 individuals who were Hindu
and 3 individuals who belonged to another church. 76 (or about 3.31% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 191 individuals (or about 8.32% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 210 who completed tertiary schooling, 62.4% were Swiss men, 24.8% were Swiss women, 8.6% were non-Swiss men and 4.3% were non-Swiss women.
, there were 2 students in Ardon who came from another municipality, while 167 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Ardon is home to the Bibliothèque communale et scolaire library. The library has 9,000 books or other media, and loaned out 9,073 items in the same year. It was open a total of 150 days with average of 6 hours per week during that year.
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...
in the district of Conthey
Conthey (district)
The district of Conthey is an administrative district in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It has a population of .The Conthey district was created as the 13th district of the Valais as the canton joined the restored Swiss Confederacy in 1815, accounting for the thirteen stars in the coat of...
in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
of Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
History
Ardon is first mentioned at the end of the 11th Century as Ardunum. In 1179 it was mentioned as Ardun.Geography
Ardon has an area, , of 20.4 square kilometre. Of this area, 4.15 square kilometre or 20.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.41 square kilometre or 31.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.33 square kilometre or 6.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.17 square kilometre or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and 8.31 square kilometre or 40.8% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 25.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.3% is used for growing crops, while 13.8% is used for orchards or vine crops and 4.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 8.6% is unproductive vegetation and 32.2% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located on the alluvial fan
Alluvial fan
An alluvial fan is a fan-shaped deposit formed where a fast flowing stream flattens, slows, and spreads typically at the exit of a canyon onto a flatter plain. A convergence of neighboring alluvial fans into a single apron of deposits against a slope is called a bajada, or compound alluvial...
of the Lizerne, to the right of the Rhone
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
river. It is about 10 km (6.2 mi) from Sion
Sion, Switzerland
Sion is the capital of the Swiss canton of Valais. it had a population of .Landmarks include the Basilique de Valère and Château de Tourbillon. Sion has an airfield for civilian and military use, which, because of its location in a valley, causes a reasonable amount of noise pollution. FC Sion...
.
Coat of arms
The blazonBlazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...
of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is Gules, a Key Or and a Key Argent in saltire.
Demographics
Ardon has a population of . , 32.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 10.3%. It has changed at a rate of 11.7% due to migration and at a rate of 3.8% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
(1,859 or 81.0%) as their first language, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
is the second most common (150 or 6.5%) and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
is the third (59 or 2.6%). There are 41 people who speak Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.5% male and 50.5% female. The population was made up of 807 Swiss men (31.6% of the population) and 458 (17.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 892 Swiss women (34.9%) and 396 (15.5%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 839 or about 36.6% were born in Ardon and lived there in 2000. There were 554 or 24.1% who were born in the same canton, while 186 or 8.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 564 or 24.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 12.5%.
, there were 972 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,126 married individuals, 115 widows or widowers and 82 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.63 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.63 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 59.7% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
or a rent-to-own agreement). , there were 847 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.
There were 220 households that consist of only one person and 70 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 873 households that answered this question, 25.2% were households made up of just one person and there were 9 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 215 married couples without children, 333 married couples with children There were 60 single parents with a child or children. There were 10 households that were made up of unrelated people and 26 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 351 single family homes (or 65.1% of the total) out of a total of 539 inhabited buildings. There were 115 multi-family buildings (21.3%), along with 45 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (8.3%) and 28 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.2%).
, a total of 764 apartments (80.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 150 apartments (15.9%) were seasonally occupied and 30 apartments (3.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 7.8 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.09%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Politics
In the 2007 federal electionSwiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
the most popular party was the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....
which received 40.59% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...
(32.99%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(10.72%) and the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
(10.3%). In the federal election, a total of 893 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was 64.1%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
Conseil d'Etat (Switzerland)
In Switzerland, Conseil d'Etat is the name of the council constituting the cantonal government of French-speaking cantons. It is not to be confused with the Conseil des États which is a chamber of the Swiss parliament....
election a total of 725 votes were cast, of which 50 or about 6.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 52.1%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
Swiss Council of States election, 2007
Elections were held to the Council of States of Switzerland in October and November 2007 as part of the 2007 federal election. All 46 members of the Council of States were elected from all cantons of Switzerland. The first round was held on 21 October...
election a total of 864 votes were cast, of which 70 or about 8.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 63.0%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Ardon had an unemployment rate of 6.9%. , there were 99 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 40 businesses involved in this sector. 136 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 23 businesses in this sector. 320 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 66 businesses in this sector. There were 1,076 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.1% of the workforce.the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...
jobs was 445. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 61, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 127 of which 109 or (85.8%) were in manufacturing and 17 (13.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 257. In the tertiary sector; 129 or 50.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 8 or 3.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 24 or 9.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 1.9% were in the information industry, 8 or 3.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 4.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 19 or 7.4% were in education and 19 or 7.4% were in health care.
, there were 306 workers who commuted into the municipality and 743 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 12.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 68.7% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 1,762 or 76.8% were Roman Catholic, while 82 or 3.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed ChurchSwiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 members of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
(or about 0.35% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.09% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...
, and there were 14 individuals (or about 0.61% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 144 (or about 6.27% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic. There were 11 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, 9 individuals who were Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and 3 individuals who belonged to another church. 76 (or about 3.31% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, and 191 individuals (or about 8.32% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Ardon about 675 or (29.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 210 or (9.2%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a FachhochschuleFachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...
). Of the 210 who completed tertiary schooling, 62.4% were Swiss men, 24.8% were Swiss women, 8.6% were non-Swiss men and 4.3% were non-Swiss women.
, there were 2 students in Ardon who came from another municipality, while 167 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Ardon is home to the Bibliothèque communale et scolaire library. The library has 9,000 books or other media, and loaned out 9,073 items in the same year. It was open a total of 150 days with average of 6 hours per week during that year.