Collombey-Muraz
Encyclopedia
Collombey-Muraz is a municipality
in the district of Monthey in the canton
of Valais
in Switzerland
. There is an oil refinery
in the town.
A 14 km (8.7 mi) long canal, Stockalper Canal was built in the 17th century by Baron Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper, at that time master of salt in Valais
, to connect Collombey-Muraz to Lake Geneva
and transport the imported salt in a cheap and convenient way.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 5.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.9%. Out of the forested land, 36.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 24.8% is used for growing crops and 1.9% is pastures and 10.3% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.5% is in lakes and 1.8% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 4.0% is unproductive vegetation and 3.4% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Monthey district, on the left bank of the Rhone
river. It consists of the villages of Collombey-le-Grand, Collombey-le-Petit, Muraz and Illarsaz.
Lac de Conche
is located in the municipality.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Azure Walls embattled and towered Argent masoned and doored Sable between three Doves volant of the second. The doves and walls ( make this an example of canting
.
Most of the population speaks French
(5,123 or 90.0%) as their first language, German
is the second most common (144 or 2.5%) and Italian
is the third (140 or 2.5%). There are 3 people who speak Romansh.
, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 2,613 Swiss men (37.4% of the population) and 872 (12.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,763 Swiss women (39.5%) and 743 (10.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 1,585 or about 27.8% were born in Collombey-Muraz and lived there in 2000. There were 1,517 or 26.6% who were born in the same canton, while 1,383 or 24.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,068 or 18.8% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 8.3%.
, there were 2,437 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,782 married individuals, 209 widows or widowers and 267 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 2,117 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 522 households that consist of only one person and 191 households with five or more people. , a total of 2,031 apartments (91.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 128 apartments (5.8%) were seasonally occupied and 54 apartments (2.4%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 14.2 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the CVP
which received 38.08% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP
(21.86%), the SP
(16.26%) and the FDP
(15.14%). In the federal election, a total of 1,858 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 47.9%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
election a total of 1,370 votes were cast, of which 126 or about 9.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 34.7%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
election a total of 1,805 votes were cast, of which 169 or about 9.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 47.1%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 2,219. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 92, of which 66 were in agriculture and 26 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 1,061 of which 488 or (46.0%) were in manufacturing and 548 (51.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,066. In the tertiary sector; 544 or 51.0% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 48 or 4.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 99 or 9.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 11 or 1.0% were in the information industry, 12 or 1.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 69 or 6.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 70 or 6.6% were in education and 111 or 10.4% were in health care.
, there were 991 workers who commuted into the municipality and 2,114 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 3.1% of the workforce coming into Collombey-Muraz are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 9% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.6% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 26 members of an Orthodox church
(or about 0.46% of the population), there were 8 individuals (or about 0.14% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
, and there were 147 individuals (or about 2.58% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 individuals (or about 0.11% of the population) who were Jewish
, and 148 (or about 2.60% of the population) who were Islam
ic. There were 11 individuals who were Buddhist
, 3 individuals who were Hindu
and 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 362 (or about 6.36% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 240 individuals (or about 4.21% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 503 who completed tertiary schooling, 53.3% were Swiss men, 27.6% were Swiss women, 11.5% were non-Swiss men and 7.6% were non-Swiss women.
, there were 22 students in Collombey-Muraz who came from another municipality, while 214 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Collombey-Muraz is home to the Bibliothèque communale library. The library has 13,019 books or other media, and loaned out 34,135 items in the same year. It was open a total of 121 days with average of 14 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 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....
. There is an oil refinery
Oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...
in the town.
History
Collombey is first mentioned in 1263 as de Columberio. Muraz was mentioned in 1283 as de Mura.A 14 km (8.7 mi) long canal, Stockalper Canal was built in the 17th century by Baron Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper, at that time master of salt in 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...
, to connect Collombey-Muraz to Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...
and transport the imported salt in a cheap and convenient way.
Geography
Collombey-Muraz has an area, , of 29.8 square kilometre. Of this area, 11.21 square kilometre or 37.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 11.99 square kilometre or 40.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.72 square kilometre or 12.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.7 square kilometre or 2.3% is either rivers or lakes and 2.19 square kilometre or 7.3% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 5.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.9%. Out of the forested land, 36.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 24.8% is used for growing crops and 1.9% is pastures and 10.3% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.5% is in lakes and 1.8% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 4.0% is unproductive vegetation and 3.4% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Monthey district, on the left bank 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 Collombey-le-Grand, Collombey-le-Petit, Muraz and Illarsaz.
Lac de Conche
Lac de Conche
Lac de Conche is a lake in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It is located in the municipality of Collombey-Muraz, at an elevation of 1687 m, close to the French border....
is located in the municipality.
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 Walls embattled and towered Argent masoned and doored Sable between three Doves volant of the second. The doves and walls ( make this an example of canting
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
.
Demographics
Collombey-Muraz has a population of . , 22.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 30.1%. It has changed at a rate of 21.6% due to migration and at a rate of 7.5% 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...
(5,123 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 (144 or 2.5%) 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 (140 or 2.5%). There are 3 people who speak Romansh.
, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 2,613 Swiss men (37.4% of the population) and 872 (12.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,763 Swiss women (39.5%) and 743 (10.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 1,585 or about 27.8% were born in Collombey-Muraz and lived there in 2000. There were 1,517 or 26.6% who were born in the same canton, while 1,383 or 24.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,068 or 18.8% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 8.3%.
, there were 2,437 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,782 married individuals, 209 widows or widowers and 267 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 2,117 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 522 households that consist of only one person and 191 households with five or more people. , a total of 2,031 apartments (91.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 128 apartments (5.8%) were seasonally occupied and 54 apartments (2.4%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 14.2 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2%.
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 38.08% 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...
(21.86%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(16.26%) 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....
(15.14%). In the federal election, a total of 1,858 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 47.9%.
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 1,370 votes were cast, of which 126 or about 9.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 34.7%, which is much less 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 1,805 votes were cast, of which 169 or about 9.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 47.1%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Collombey-Muraz had an unemployment rate of 4.7%. , there were 110 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 27 businesses involved in this sector. 1,128 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 107 businesses in this sector. 1,342 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 210 businesses in this sector. There were 2,892 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.2% 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 2,219. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 92, of which 66 were in agriculture and 26 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 1,061 of which 488 or (46.0%) were in manufacturing and 548 (51.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,066. In the tertiary sector; 544 or 51.0% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 48 or 4.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 99 or 9.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 11 or 1.0% were in the information industry, 12 or 1.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 69 or 6.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 70 or 6.6% were in education and 111 or 10.4% were in health care.
, there were 991 workers who commuted into the municipality and 2,114 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 3.1% of the workforce coming into Collombey-Muraz are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 9% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.6% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 4,033 or 70.8% were Roman Catholic, while 772 or 13.6% 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 26 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 0.46% of the population), there were 8 individuals (or about 0.14% 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 147 individuals (or about 2.58% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 individuals (or about 0.11% of the population) who were Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, and 148 (or about 2.60% 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...
, 3 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 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 362 (or about 6.36% 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 240 individuals (or about 4.21% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Collombey-Muraz about 2,064 or (36.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 503 or (8.8%) 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 503 who completed tertiary schooling, 53.3% were Swiss men, 27.6% were Swiss women, 11.5% were non-Swiss men and 7.6% were non-Swiss women.
, there were 22 students in Collombey-Muraz who came from another municipality, while 214 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Collombey-Muraz is home to the Bibliothèque communale library. The library has 13,019 books or other media, and loaned out 34,135 items in the same year. It was open a total of 121 days with average of 14 hours per week during that year.