Ergisch
Encyclopedia
Ergisch is a 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 Leuk 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

Ergisch has an area, , of 29.8 square kilometre. Of this area, 20.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 38.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and 40.1% is unproductive land.

The municipality is located in the Leuk district, at an elevation of 1090 m (3,576.1 ft) on the slope 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...

 valley at the entrance to the Turtmann valley.

Coat of arms

The blazon
Blazon
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 Per fess Azure three Mullets of Six Argent one and two and Gules a Fleur-de-lis and a Double Cross of the second.

Demographics

Ergisch has a population of . , 5.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 17.5%. It has changed at a rate of 11.3% due to migration and at a rate of -6.9% due to births and deaths.

All 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....

.

, the gender distribution of the population was 50.0% male and 50.0% female. The population was made up of 89 Swiss men (47.3% of the population) and 5 (2.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 89 Swiss women (47.3%) and 5 (2.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 118 or about 67.0% were born in Ergisch and lived there in 2000. There were 39 or 22.2% who were born in the same canton, while 15 or 8.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 4 or 2.3% were born outside of Switzerland.

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 54.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.9%.

, there were 76 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 82 married individuals, 15 widows or widowers and 3 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.71 which is more people per room than 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 95.5% 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 68 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 19 households that consist of only one person and 7 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 69 households that answered this question, 27.5% were households made up of just one person and there were 3 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 15 married couples without children, 27 married couples with children There were 2 single parents with a child or children. There were 2 households that were made up of unrelated people and 1 household that was made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 140 single family homes (or 77.3% of the total) out of a total of 181 inhabited buildings. There were 31 multi-family buildings (17.1%), along with 5 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (2.8%) and 5 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.8%).

, a total of 67 apartments (30.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 88 apartments (40.4%) were seasonally occupied and 63 apartments (28.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.87%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Politics

In the 2007 federal election
Swiss 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 65.05% 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...

 (20.03%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (12.63%) 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....

 (2.17%). In the federal election, a total of 121 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 79.6%.

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 122 votes were cast, of which 8 or about 6.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 82.4%, 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 121 votes were cast, of which 7 or about 5.8% were invalid. The voter participation was 79.6%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Ergisch had an unemployment rate of 1.3%. , there were 28 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 14 businesses involved in this sector. 3 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 2 businesses in this sector. 10 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 5 businesses in this sector. There were 77 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.6% 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 23. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 12, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3 of which 2 or (66.7%) were in manufacturing and 1 was in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 8. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 25.0% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 50.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in education.

, there were 5 workers who commuted into the municipality and 58 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 11.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 14.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.6% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 163 or 92.6% were Roman Catholic, while 8 or 4.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
Swiss 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 was 1 individual who belongs 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...

. 4 (or about 2.27% 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...

.

Education

In Ergisch about 53 or (30.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 4 or (2.3%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
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 4 who completed tertiary schooling, all were Swiss men.

, there were 4 students from Ergisch who attended schools outside the municipality.
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