Vernamiège
Encyclopedia
Vernamiège is a former 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 Hérens
Hérens (district)
The district of Hérens is a district in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a population of .-Geography:Except for the municipality of Ayent, which lies on the north bank of the Rhône, the municipalities of Hérens are located in the Val d'Hérens on the south bank of the...

 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....

. On 1 January 2011, the former municipalities of Vernamiège, Nax
Nax
Nax is a former municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municipalities of Vernamiège, Nax and Mase merged in the new municipality of Mont-Noble.-History:...

 and Mase
Mase, Switzerland
Mase is a former municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municipalities of Vernamiège, Nax and Mase merged in the new municipality of Mont-Noble.-History:...

 merged in the new municipality of Mont-Noble
Mont-Noble
Mont-Noble is a municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2011 through the merger of the municipalities of Mase, Vernamiège and Nax.-History:...

.

Geography

Vernamiège has an area, , of 7.4 square kilometre. Of this area, 1.51 square kilometre or 20.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 5.28 square kilometre or 71.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.3 square kilometre or 4.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.28 square kilometre or 3.8% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 65.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for growing crops and 8.7% is pastures, while 1.2% is used for orchards or vine crops and 10.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the village is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 1.5% is unproductive vegetation and 2.3% is too rocky for vegetation.

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 village 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 a Crosier Or issuant from base and an alder-tree Branch Vert fructed Sable in saltire in chief two Mullets of Five of the second.

Demographics

Vernamiège has a population of 153.

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...

 (132 or 91.7%) 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 (11 or 7.6%) and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 is the third (1 or 0.7%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 47.1% male and 52.9% female. The population was made up of 83 Swiss men (43.9% of the population) and 6 (3.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 96 Swiss women (50.8%) and 4 (2.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the village 97 or about 67.4% were born in Vernamiège and lived there in 2000. There were 15 or 10.4% who were born in the same canton, while 24 or 16.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 8 or 5.6% were born outside of Switzerland.

, there were 60 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 70 married individuals, 10 widows or widowers and 4 individuals who are divorced.

There were 25 households that consist of only one person and 4 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 68 households that answered this question, 36.8% 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 21 married couples without children, 14 married couples with children There were 2 single parents with a child or children. There were 3 households that were made up of unrelated people.

there were 119 single family homes (or 73.0% of the total) out of a total of 163 inhabited buildings. There were 36 multi-family buildings (22.1%), along with 5 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (3.1%) and 3 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (1.8%).

, a total of 68 apartments (31.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 127 apartments (58.0%) were seasonally occupied and 24 apartments (11.0%) were empty.

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 48.48% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (23.38%), the Green Party
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (11.4%) and 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...

 (11.11%). In the federal election, a total of 100 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 63.3%.

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 84 votes were cast, of which 7 or about 8.3% were invalid. The voter participation was 51.9%, 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 99 votes were cast, of which 3 or about 3.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 63.5%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Vernamiège had an unemployment rate of 0%. , there were people employed in the primary economic sector and about businesses involved in this sector. No one was employed in the secondary sector or the tertiary sector. There were 52 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.5% 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 11. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 4, all of which were in agriculture. There were no jobs in the secondary sector. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 7. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in a hotel or restaurant, and 1 was in the information industry.

, there were 34 workers who commuted away from the village. Of the working population, % used public transportation to get to work, and % used a private car.

Religion

From the , 118 or 81.9% were Roman Catholic, while 12 or 8.3% 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 was 1 individual who was Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 10 (or about 6.94% 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 3 individuals (or about 2.08% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Vernamiège about 34 or (23.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 20 or (13.9%) 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 20 who completed tertiary schooling, 65.0% were Swiss men, 30.0% were Swiss women.

, there were 17 students from Vernamiège who attended schools outside the village.
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