Champéry
Encyclopedia
Champéry is a municipality
in the district of Monthey in the canton
of Valais
in Switzerland
.
The Hotel Dent-du-Midi opened in 1857. In 1969, Champéry became one of the founding villages of the Portes du Soleil ski area and resort.
The municipality is located in the Monthey district, in the Val-d'Illiez, on the French
border. It consists of the linear village
of Champéry, which was part of the municipality of Val-d'Illiez
until 1839 when it became independent.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Quartered Argent issuant from three Mounts Vert as many Pine Trees of the same trunked proper and Azure stantant on ground Or a man proper clad of the same troused Argent holding a bag of the same sowing seeds Or from it.
Most of the population speaks French
(996 or 90.0%) as their first language, German
is the second most common (26 or 2.3%) and English
is the third (24 or 2.2%). There are 9 people who speak Italian
.
, the population was 51.9% male and 48.1% female. The population was made up of 504 Swiss men (39.5% of the population) and 158 (12.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 473 Swiss women (37.1%) and 140 (11.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 509 or about 46.0% were born in Champéry and lived there in 2000. There were 168 or 15.2% who were born in the same canton, while 192 or 17.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 201 or 18.2% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.6%.
, there were 436 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 551 married individuals, 62 widows or widowers and 58 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 458 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 160 households that consist of only one person and 31 households with five or more people. , a total of 433 apartments (28.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,008 apartments (65.8%) were seasonally occupied and 91 apartments (5.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 23.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.68%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the CVP
which received 35.76% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP
(25.7%), the SVP
(20.71%) and the SP
(9.8%). In the federal election, a total of 464 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 54.0%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
election a total of 393 votes were cast, of which 26 or about 6.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 49.9%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
election a total of 446 votes were cast, of which 23 or about 5.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 55.7%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 383. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 29, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 40 of which 15 or (37.5%) were in manufacturing and 13 (32.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 314. In the tertiary sector; 50 or 15.9% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 3.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 116 or 36.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 0.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 0.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 57 or 18.2% were in education and 1 was in health care.
, there were 103 workers who commuted into the municipality and 196 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 4.9% of the workforce coming into Champéry are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 4.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 61% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 5 members of an Orthodox church
(or about 0.45% of the population), and there were 32 individuals (or about 2.89% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 7 (or about 0.63% of the population) who were Islam
ic. There were 3 individuals who were Buddhist
and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 96 (or about 8.67% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 55 individuals (or about 4.97% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 136 who completed tertiary schooling, 48.5% were Swiss men, 20.6% were Swiss women, 16.9% were non-Swiss men and 14.0% were non-Swiss women.
, there was one student in Champéry who came from another municipality, while 77 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
recreational area, at an altitude of 2000 m (6,561.7 ft). With 194 ski lifts and over 650 m (2,132.5 ft) of ski slopes, this is the largest international ski area in the world.
(a National Centre for Ice Sports) offers indoor and outdoor activities and regularly hosts national and international ice-sports training camps and competitions.
– Monthey
– Champéry. Aigle is a town on the Swiss Federal Railway and allows train connections to Geneva, Bern, and Basel.
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 Monthey 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
Champéry is first mentioned in 1286 as ChamperyThe Hotel Dent-du-Midi opened in 1857. In 1969, Champéry became one of the founding villages of the Portes du Soleil ski area and resort.
Geography
Champéry has an area, , of 39 square kilometre. Of this area, 32.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 33.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and 30.3% is unproductive land.The municipality is located in the Monthey district, in the Val-d'Illiez, on the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
border. It consists of the linear village
Linear village
In geography, a linear village, or linear settlement, is a small to medium-sized settlement that is formed around a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Wraysbury, a village in Berkshire, is one of the longest villages in England....
of Champéry, which was part of the municipality of Val-d'Illiez
Val-d'Illiez
Val-d'Illiez is a municipality in the district of Monthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-Geography:Val-d'Illiez has an area, , of . Of this area, or 38.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 36.7% is forested...
until 1839 when it became independent.
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 Quartered Argent issuant from three Mounts Vert as many Pine Trees of the same trunked proper and Azure stantant on ground Or a man proper clad of the same troused Argent holding a bag of the same sowing seeds Or from it.
Demographics
Champéry has a population of . , 23.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 12.8%. It has changed at a rate of 11.7% due to migration and at a rate of 0% 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...
(996 or 90.0%) 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 (26 or 2.3%) and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
is the third (24 or 2.2%). There are 9 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 51.9% male and 48.1% female. The population was made up of 504 Swiss men (39.5% of the population) and 158 (12.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 473 Swiss women (37.1%) and 140 (11.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 509 or about 46.0% were born in Champéry and lived there in 2000. There were 168 or 15.2% who were born in the same canton, while 192 or 17.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 201 or 18.2% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.6%.
, there were 436 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 551 married individuals, 62 widows or widowers and 58 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 458 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 160 households that consist of only one person and 31 households with five or more people. , a total of 433 apartments (28.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,008 apartments (65.8%) were seasonally occupied and 91 apartments (5.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 23.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.68%.
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 35.76% 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....
(25.7%), 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...
(20.71%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(9.8%). In the federal election, a total of 464 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 54.0%.
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 393 votes were cast, of which 26 or about 6.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 49.9%, 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 446 votes were cast, of which 23 or about 5.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 55.7%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Champéry had an unemployment rate of 2.8%. , there were 36 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 43 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 14 businesses in this sector. 400 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 69 businesses in this sector. There were 525 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.0% 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 383. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 29, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 40 of which 15 or (37.5%) were in manufacturing and 13 (32.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 314. In the tertiary sector; 50 or 15.9% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 3.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 116 or 36.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 0.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 0.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 57 or 18.2% were in education and 1 was in health care.
, there were 103 workers who commuted into the municipality and 196 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 4.9% of the workforce coming into Champéry are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 4.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 61% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 818 or 73.9% were Roman Catholic, while 103 or 9.3% 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 5 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 0.45% of the population), and there were 32 individuals (or about 2.89% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 7 (or about 0.63% 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 3 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...
and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 96 (or about 8.67% 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 55 individuals (or about 4.97% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Champéry about 337 or (30.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 136 or (12.3%) 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 136 who completed tertiary schooling, 48.5% were Swiss men, 20.6% were Swiss women, 16.9% were non-Swiss men and 14.0% were non-Swiss women.
, there was one student in Champéry who came from another municipality, while 77 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Winter
The Champéry – Planachaux cable-car (125 passengers) and the new 6 seater chairlift in Grand-Paradis takes skiers to the Portes du SoleilPortes du Soleil
Les Portes du Soleil is a major skisports destination in the northern French alps encompassing thirteen resorts between Mont Blanc in France and Lake Geneva in Switzerland...
recreational area, at an altitude of 2000 m (6,561.7 ft). With 194 ski lifts and over 650 m (2,132.5 ft) of ski slopes, this is the largest international ski area in the world.
Summer
The Portes du Soleil recreational area keeps 24 chairlifts open for the summer, giving access to over 600 km (372.8 mi) of paths. The Dents du Midi and the Dents Blanches mountain ridges also offer walks and hikes. Champéry’s PalladiumPalladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pd and an atomic number of 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired...
(a National Centre for Ice Sports) offers indoor and outdoor activities and regularly hosts national and international ice-sports training camps and competitions.
Transport
Champéry is on the railway line Chemin de fer Aigle-Ollon-Monthey-Champéry (AOMC): Aigle – OllonOllon
Ollon is a municipality in the district of Aigle in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, sited in the foothills of the mountains to the south-east of the Lake of Geneva. The old German language name Olun is no longer used.-History:...
– Monthey
Monthey
Monthey is the capital of the district of Monthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.- History :The castle in the town center was built in 950 on a hill, the first houses of Monthey surrounded it. Monthey is first mentioned in 1215 as Montez At the 13th century, the counts of Savoy owned the...
– Champéry. Aigle is a town on the Swiss Federal Railway and allows train connections to Geneva, Bern, and Basel.