Sembrancher
Encyclopedia
Sembrancher 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 Entremont 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

Sembrancher is first mentioned in 1177 as Sancti Pancratii de Branchi. Its German name St Branschier is no longer used.

Geography

Sembrancher has an area, , of 17.7 square kilometre. Of this area, 17.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 63.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and 15.3% is unproductive land.

The municipality is the capital of the district of Entremont. It is located at the confluence
Confluence
Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...

 of the Dranse de Bagnes and the Dranse d'Entremont along the road over the Great St Bernard Pass. It lies about 10 km (6.2 mi) distant from Verbier
Verbier
Verbier is a village located in southwestern Switzerland in the canton of Valais. It is one of the largest holiday resort and ski areas in the Swiss Alps, is recognized as one of the premiere "off-piste" locations in the world...

 ski resort and Martigny.

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 Azure, in base Coupeaux Argent, issuant from sinister an Arm proper clad Vert and cuffed Argent holding a branch Or.

Demographics

Sembrancher has a population of . , 9.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 3%. It has changed at a rate of 3% due to migration and at a rate of -0.4% 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...

 (778 or 98.2%) 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 (6 or 0.8%) 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 (4 or 0.5%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 50.1% male and 49.9% female. The population was made up of 369 Swiss men (43.7% of the population) and 54 (6.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 381 Swiss women (45.1%) and 41 (4.9%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 491 or about 62.0% were born in Sembrancher and lived there in 2000. There were 190 or 24.0% who were born in the same canton, while 73 or 9.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 36 or 4.5% were born outside of Switzerland.

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 53.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.1%.

, there were 347 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 367 married individuals, 52 widows or widowers and 26 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.63 which is about equal to 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 81.4% 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 299 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 98 households that consist of only one person and 40 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 307 households that answered this question, 31.9% 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 63 married couples without children, 120 married couples with children There were 10 single parents with a child or children. There were 5 households that were made up of unrelated people and 8 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 171 single family homes (or 67.3% of the total) out of a total of 254 inhabited buildings. There were 62 multi-family buildings (24.4%), along with 11 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (4.3%) and 10 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (3.9%).

, a total of 279 apartments (74.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 75 apartments (20.0%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (5.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.75%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Sights

The entire small city of Sembrancher 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 47.64% 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....

 (21.05%), 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...

 (17.15%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (9.05%). In the federal election, a total of 390 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 62.7%.

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 390 votes were cast, of which 14 or about 3.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 64.8%, 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 382 votes were cast, of which 29 or about 7.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 63.3%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

Its spring water has a high florine content and is sold as 'Sembrancher'.

, Sembrancher had an unemployment rate of 5.3%. , there were 36 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 18 businesses involved in this sector. 138 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 19 businesses in this sector. 129 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 26 businesses in this sector. There were 342 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 35.4% 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 244. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 20, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 128 of which 93 or (72.7%) were in manufacturing and 33 (25.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 96. In the tertiary sector; 35 or 36.5% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 3 or 3.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 9 or 9.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 3.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 8 or 8.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 6 or 6.3% were in education and 23 or 24.0% were in health care.

, there were 163 workers who commuted into the municipality and 220 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 10.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 72.8% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 705 or 89.0% were Roman Catholic, while 29 or 3.7% 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 another Christian church. There were 3 (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 were 1 individual who belonged to another church. 49 (or about 6.19% 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 4 individuals (or about 0.51% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Sembrancher about 258 or (32.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 48 or (6.1%) 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 48 who completed tertiary schooling, 83.3% were Swiss men, 14.6% were Swiss women.

, there were 55 students from Sembrancher who attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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