Eisten
Encyclopedia
Eisten 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 Visp 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

Eisten has an area, , of 38 square kilometre. Of this area, 9.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 23.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and 65.8% is unproductive land.

The municipality is located in the Visp district, on the eastern and western sides of the entrance into the Saas valley. It lies east of the Mischabel range, which culminates at the Dom (4545 m (14,911.4 ft)).

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 Vert, a Lamb Argent passant over a Coupeaux Or, a chief Azure.

Demographics

Eisten has a population of , all Swiss citizens. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of -22%. It has changed at a rate of -5.7% due to migration and at a rate of -5.7% 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....

 (217 or 96.0%) as their first language, Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...

 is the second most common (7 or 3.1%) and Romansh is the third (1 or 0.4%).

, the population was 48.5% male and 51.5% female. The population was made up of 100 Swiss men (48.5% of the population) and (0.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 106 Swiss women (51.5%) and (0.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 184 or about 81.4% were born in Eisten and lived there in 2000. There were 23 or 10.2% who were born in the same canton, while 6 or 2.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 12 or 5.3% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 26.5% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 56.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.3%.

, there were 93 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 112 married individuals, 18 widows or widowers and 3 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 80 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 23 households that consist of only one person and 12 households with five or more people. , a total of 76 apartments (61.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 38 apartments (30.6%) were seasonally occupied and 10 apartments (8.1%) were empty.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Sights

The entire village of Eisten is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Inventory 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 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 79.36% 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...

 (8.45%), 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....

 (5.82%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (5.26%). In the federal election, a total of 108 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 58.1%.

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 106 votes were cast, of which 4 or about 3.8% were invalid. The voter participation was 59.9%, 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 107 votes were cast, of which 1 or about 0.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 59.8%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Eisten had an unemployment rate of 1.8%. , there were 14 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 8 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 3 businesses in this sector. 4 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 3 businesses in this sector. There were 88 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 30.7% 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 15. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 4, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 7 of which 6 or (85.7%) were in manufacturing The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 4, of which 3 were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles and 1 was in a hotel or restaurant.

, there were 3 workers who commuted into the municipality and 70 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 23.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 28.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 62.5% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 208 or 92.0% were Roman Catholic, while 1 or 0.4% 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...

. There were 9 (or about 3.98% 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. 3 (or about 1.33% 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 5 individuals (or about 2.21% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Eisten about 69 or (30.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 4 or (1.8%) 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, 25.0% were Swiss men, 25.0% were Swiss women.

During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 15 students in the Eisten 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 3 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Eisten there were a total of 2 classes and 15 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 Eisten attend their school in a neighboring municipality.

, there was one student in Eisten who came from another municipality, while 9 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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