Chalais, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Chalais is a municipality
in the district of Sierre in the canton
of Valais
in Switzerland
.
In 1892 much of the village was destroyed in a fire.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, 64.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.4% is used for growing crops and 4.3% is pastures, while 4.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 9.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 3.0% is unproductive vegetation and 1.8% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Sierre district, on the left side of the Rhone
river. It consists of the villages of Chalais and Réchy on the edge of the valley along with Brie and Vercorin on a terrace in the mountains.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Argent, between a Cross pattee Vert overall four Mullets of Five Gules.
Most of the population speaks French
(2,397 or 90.2%) as their first language, German
is the second most common (116 or 4.4%) and Italian
is the third (59 or 2.2%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 1,294 Swiss men (41.4% of the population) and 260 (8.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,336 Swiss women (42.8%) and 232 (7.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 1,194 or about 44.9% were born in Chalais and lived there in 2000. There were 753 or 28.3% who were born in the same canton, while 238 or 9.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 372 or 14.0% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 24% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 60.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.9%.
, there were 1,020 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,375 married individuals, 156 widows or widowers and 106 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 1,045 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 308 households that consist of only one person and 74 households with five or more people. , a total of 922 apartments (43.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,084 apartments (51.2%) were seasonally occupied and 112 apartments (5.3%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.13%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the CVP
which received 28.67% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP
(22.21%), the SP
(21.19%) and the SVP
(18.15%). In the federal election, a total of 1,172 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 57.4%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
election a total of 1,280 votes were cast, of which 75 or about 5.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 61.8%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
election a total of 1,164 votes were cast, of which 70 or about 6.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 57.7%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 540. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 47, of which 34 were in agriculture and 13 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 188 of which 89 or (47.3%) were in manufacturing and 98 (52.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 305. In the tertiary sector; 75 or 24.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 19 or 6.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 53 or 17.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 7 or 2.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 23 or 7.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 21 or 6.9% were in education and 59 or 19.3% were in health care.
, there were 230 workers who commuted into the municipality and 876 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.6% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 51 members of an Orthodox church
(or about 1.92% of the population), and there were 21 individuals (or about 0.79% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 10 (or about 0.38% of the population) who were Islam
ic. There was 1 person who was Buddhist
and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 133 (or about 5.01% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 139 individuals (or about 5.23% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 254 who completed tertiary schooling, 61.8% were Swiss men, 28.3% were Swiss women, 5.5% were non-Swiss men and 4.3% were non-Swiss women.
, there was one student in Chalais who came from another municipality, while 204 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Chalais is home to the Bibliothèque communale et scolaire de Chalais et Vercorin library. The library has 16,102 books or other media, and loaned out 30,421 items in the same year. It was open a total of 191 days with average of 16 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 Sierre 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
Chalais is first mentioned in the 11th century as Jaler. In 1425 it was mentioned as Challir.In 1892 much of the village was destroyed in a fire.
Geography
Chalais has an area, , of 24.5 square kilometre. Of this area, 4.65 square kilometre or 19.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 16.55 square kilometre or 67.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.07 square kilometre or 8.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and 1.16 square kilometre or 4.7% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, 64.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.4% is used for growing crops and 4.3% is pastures, while 4.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 9.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 3.0% is unproductive vegetation and 1.8% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Sierre district, on the left side 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 consists of the villages of Chalais and Réchy on the edge of the valley along with Brie and Vercorin on a terrace in the mountains.
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 Argent, between a Cross pattee Vert overall four Mullets of Five Gules.
Demographics
Chalais has a population of . , 15.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 17.9%. It has changed at a rate of 14.1% due to migration and at a rate of 0.3% 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...
(2,397 or 90.2%) as their first language, 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 second most common (116 or 4.4%) and 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...
is the third (59 or 2.2%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 1,294 Swiss men (41.4% of the population) and 260 (8.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,336 Swiss women (42.8%) and 232 (7.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 1,194 or about 44.9% were born in Chalais and lived there in 2000. There were 753 or 28.3% who were born in the same canton, while 238 or 9.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 372 or 14.0% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 24% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 60.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.9%.
, there were 1,020 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,375 married individuals, 156 widows or widowers and 106 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 1,045 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 308 households that consist of only one person and 74 households with five or more people. , a total of 922 apartments (43.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,084 apartments (51.2%) were seasonally occupied and 112 apartments (5.3%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.13%.
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 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 28.67% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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....
(22.21%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(21.19%) 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...
(18.15%). In the federal election, a total of 1,172 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 57.4%.
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 1,280 votes were cast, of which 75 or about 5.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 61.8%, which is much more than 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 1,164 votes were cast, of which 70 or about 6.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 57.7%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Chalais had an unemployment rate of 3.9%. , there were 76 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 36 businesses involved in this sector. 197 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 40 businesses in this sector. 408 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 83 businesses in this sector. There were 1,297 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.6% 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 540. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 47, of which 34 were in agriculture and 13 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 188 of which 89 or (47.3%) were in manufacturing and 98 (52.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 305. In the tertiary sector; 75 or 24.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 19 or 6.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 53 or 17.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 7 or 2.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 23 or 7.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 21 or 6.9% were in education and 59 or 19.3% were in health care.
, there were 230 workers who commuted into the municipality and 876 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.6% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 2,222 or 83.6% were Roman Catholic, while 87 or 3.3% 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 51 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 1.92% of the population), and there were 21 individuals (or about 0.79% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 10 (or about 0.38% 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 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...
and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 133 (or about 5.01% 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 139 individuals (or about 5.23% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Chalais about 923 or (34.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 254 or (9.6%) 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 254 who completed tertiary schooling, 61.8% were Swiss men, 28.3% were Swiss women, 5.5% were non-Swiss men and 4.3% were non-Swiss women.
, there was one student in Chalais who came from another municipality, while 204 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Chalais is home to the Bibliothèque communale et scolaire de Chalais et Vercorin library. The library has 16,102 books or other media, and loaned out 30,421 items in the same year. It was open a total of 191 days with average of 16 hours per week during that year.