Bitsch, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Bitsch is a municipality
in the district of Raron
in the canton
of Valais
in Switzerland
.
The municipality is located in the Östlich-Raron district, on the southern facing slopes of the mountains. It consists of scattered, small hamlets
including the main hamlet of Wasen.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Azure, on Coupeaux Vert a Chamois rampant Sable langued Gules between an edelweiss and a rhododendron proper.
Most of the population speaks German
(721 or 96.5%) as their first language, Dutch
is the second most common (8 or 1.1%) and French
is the third (7 or 0.9%). There are 7 people who speak Italian
.
, the population was made up of 775 Swiss citizens and 65 non-citizen residents (7.74% of the population). Of the population in the municipality, 277 or about 37.1% were born in Bitsch and lived there in 2000. There were 329 or 44.0% who were born in the same canton, while 83 or 11.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 42 or 5.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 30.3% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 60% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 9.8%.
, there were 340 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 347 married individuals, 32 widows or widowers and 28 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 268 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 54 households that consist of only one person and 28 households with five or more people. , a total of 254 apartments (66.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 107 apartments (27.8%) were seasonally occupied and 24 apartments (6.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.41%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the CVP
which received 55.66% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP
(23.45%), the SP
(13.69%) and the FDP
(5.44%). In the federal election, a total of 337 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 55.9%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
election a total of 354 votes were cast, of which 34 or about 9.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 58.3%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
election a total of 338 votes were cast, of which 8 or about 2.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 56.2%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 224. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 6, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 59 of which 37 or (62.7%) were in manufacturing and 4 (6.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 159. In the tertiary sector; 63 or 39.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 12 or 7.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 5 or 3.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 3.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 3.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 3.1% were in education and 59 or 37.1% were in health care.
, there were 153 workers who commuted into the municipality and 250 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 12.4% of the workforce coming into Bitsch are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 15% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.2% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 10 individuals (or about 1.34% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islam
ic. There was 1 person who was Buddhist
. 22 (or about 2.95% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 28 individuals (or about 3.75% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 61 who completed tertiary schooling, 67.2% were Swiss men, 18.0% were Swiss women and 8.2% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 60 students in the Bitsch school system. The education system
in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten
. During that school year, there was one kindergarten class (KG1 or KG2) and 15 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Bitsch there were a total of 4 classes and 60 students in the primary school. The secondary school
program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower and upper secondary students from Bitsch attend their school in a neighboring municipality.
, there was one student in Bitsch who came from another municipality, while 49 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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 Raron
Raron (district)
The district of Raron was one of the 12 districts comprising the Republic of Wallis and after 1848 the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Today it is divided into two demi-districts, which are geographically separated by the District of Brig....
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....
.
Geography
Bitsch has an area, , of 4.1 square kilometre. Of this area, 22.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 49.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and 18.2% is unproductive land.The municipality is located in the Östlich-Raron district, on the southern facing slopes of the mountains. It consists of scattered, small hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
including the main hamlet of Wasen.
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 Azure, on Coupeaux Vert a Chamois rampant Sable langued Gules between an edelweiss and a rhododendron proper.
Demographics
Bitsch has a population of . , 7.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 8.8%. It has changed at a rate of 8% due to migration and at a rate of 4.3% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks 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....
(721 or 96.5%) as their first language, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
is the second most common (8 or 1.1%) and 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...
is the third (7 or 0.9%). There are 7 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 population was made up of 775 Swiss citizens and 65 non-citizen residents (7.74% of the population). Of the population in the municipality, 277 or about 37.1% were born in Bitsch and lived there in 2000. There were 329 or 44.0% who were born in the same canton, while 83 or 11.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 42 or 5.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 30.3% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 60% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 9.8%.
, there were 340 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 347 married individuals, 32 widows or widowers and 28 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 268 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 54 households that consist of only one person and 28 households with five or more people. , a total of 254 apartments (66.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 107 apartments (27.8%) were seasonally occupied and 24 apartments (6.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.41%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Sights
The entire hamlet of Wasen is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage SitesInventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...
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 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...
which received 55.66% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...
(23.45%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(13.69%) and 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....
(5.44%). In the federal election, a total of 337 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 55.9%.
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 354 votes were cast, of which 34 or about 9.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 58.3%, 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 338 votes were cast, of which 8 or about 2.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 56.2%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Bitsch had an unemployment rate of 1.5%. , there were 24 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 15 businesses involved in this sector. 61 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 10 businesses in this sector. 189 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 20 businesses in this sector. There were 353 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.2% 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 224. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 6, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 59 of which 37 or (62.7%) were in manufacturing and 4 (6.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 159. In the tertiary sector; 63 or 39.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 12 or 7.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 5 or 3.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 3.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 3.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 3.1% were in education and 59 or 37.1% were in health care.
, there were 153 workers who commuted into the municipality and 250 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 12.4% of the workforce coming into Bitsch are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 15% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.2% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 658 or 88.1% were Roman Catholic, while 32 or 4.3% 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 10 individuals (or about 1.34% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic. There was 1 person who was 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...
. 22 (or about 2.95% 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 28 individuals (or about 3.75% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Bitsch about 297 or (39.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 61 or (8.2%) 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 61 who completed tertiary schooling, 67.2% were Swiss men, 18.0% were Swiss women and 8.2% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 60 students in the Bitsch school system. The education system
Education in Switzerland
The education system in Switzerland is very diverse, because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system mainly to the cantons...
in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
. During that school year, there was one kindergarten class (KG1 or KG2) and 15 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Bitsch there were a total of 4 classes and 60 students in the primary school. The secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower and upper secondary students from Bitsch attend their school in a neighboring municipality.
, there was one student in Bitsch who came from another municipality, while 49 residents attended schools outside the municipality.