Vétroz
Encyclopedia
Vétroz is a municipality
in the district of Conthey
in the canton
of Valais
in Switzerland
.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.0% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 8.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area Out of the forested land, 16.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 17.0% is used for growing crops and 3.3% is pastures, while 26.9% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 2.1% is unproductive vegetation and 9.4% is too rocky for vegetation.
In 1880 the municipality was formed when it became independent from Conthey
.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Gules, a Vine Branch Vert fructed Or, in Chief Azure between two Mullets of Five Or a Cross pommy of the same.
Most of the population speaks French
(3,253 or 88.1%) as their first language, German
is the second most common (121 or 3.3%) and Portuguese
is the third (117 or 3.2%). There are 108 people who speak Italian
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. The population was made up of 1,667 Swiss men (37.0% of the population) and 552 (12.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,788 Swiss women (39.7%) and 497 (11.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 1,280 or about 34.7% were born in Vétroz and lived there in 2000. There were 1,228 or 33.3% who were born in the same canton, while 374 or 10.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 654 or 17.7% were born outside of Switzerland.
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13%.
, there were 1,429 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,910 married individuals, 204 widows or widowers and 148 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.64 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 71.8% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 1,315 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 284 households that consist of only one person and 106 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,358 households that answered this question, 20.9% were households made up of just one person and there were 15 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 323 married couples without children, 593 married couples with children There were 85 single parents with a child or children. There were 15 households that were made up of unrelated people and 43 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 670 single family homes (or 75.5% of the total) out of a total of 887 inhabited buildings. There were 150 multi-family buildings (16.9%), along with 41 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (4.6%) and 26 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.9%).
, a total of 1,235 apartments (87.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 130 apartments (9.3%) were seasonally occupied and 40 apartments (2.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 8.7 new units per 1000 residents.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the FDP
which received 38.03% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
(31.98%), the SVP
(12.98%) and the SP
(10.51%). In the federal election, a total of 1,749 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 67.1%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
election a total of 1,531 votes were cast, of which 79 or about 5.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 57.9%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
election a total of 1,736 votes were cast, of which 90 or about 5.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 66.9%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 980. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 121, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 326 of which 80 or (24.5%) were in manufacturing and 220 (67.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 533. In the tertiary sector; 124 or 23.3% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 1.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 66 or 12.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 9 or 1.7% were in the information industry, 5 or 0.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 19 or 3.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 36 or 6.8% were in education and 121 or 22.7% were in health care.
, there were 381 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,299 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.5% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 11 members of an Orthodox church
(or about 0.30% of the population), there were 8 individuals (or about 0.22% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
, and there were 47 individuals (or about 1.27% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 95 (or about 2.57% of the population) who were Islam
ic. There were 6 individuals who were Buddhist
, 1 person who was Hindu
and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 104 (or about 2.82% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 187 individuals (or about 5.07% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 424 who completed tertiary schooling, 64.6% were Swiss men, 28.3% were Swiss women, 4.2% were non-Swiss men and 2.8% were non-Swiss women.
, there was one student in Vétroz who came from another municipality, while 332 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Vétroz is home to the Bibliothèque de Vétroz-Magnot library. The library has 8,259 books or other media, and loaned out 20,575 items in the same year. It was open a total of 127 days with average of 7 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 Conthey
Conthey (district)
The district of Conthey is an administrative district in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It has a population of .The Conthey district was created as the 13th district of the Valais as the canton joined the restored Swiss Confederacy in 1815, accounting for the thirteen stars in the coat of...
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
Vétroz has an area, , of 10.5 square kilometre. Of this area, 4.97 square kilometre or 47.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.06 square kilometre or 19.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.91 square kilometre or 18.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.25 square kilometre or 2.4% is either rivers or lakes and 1.2 square kilometre or 11.5% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.0% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 8.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area Out of the forested land, 16.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 17.0% is used for growing crops and 3.3% is pastures, while 26.9% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 2.1% is unproductive vegetation and 9.4% is too rocky for vegetation.
In 1880 the municipality was formed when it became independent from Conthey
Conthey
Conthey is a municipality in the district of Conthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-History:Conthey is first mentioned about 800 as curtis Contextis. In 1146 it was mentioned as ecclesiam de Plano Contesio.-Geography:...
.
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 Gules, a Vine Branch Vert fructed Or, in Chief Azure between two Mullets of Five Or a Cross pommy of the same.
Demographics
Vétroz has a population of . , 23.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 15%. It has changed at a rate of 16% due to migration and at a rate of 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...
(3,253 or 88.1%) 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 (121 or 3.3%) and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
is the third (117 or 3.2%). There are 108 people who speak 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...
.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. The population was made up of 1,667 Swiss men (37.0% of the population) and 552 (12.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,788 Swiss women (39.7%) and 497 (11.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 1,280 or about 34.7% were born in Vétroz and lived there in 2000. There were 1,228 or 33.3% who were born in the same canton, while 374 or 10.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 654 or 17.7% were born outside of Switzerland.
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13%.
, there were 1,429 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,910 married individuals, 204 widows or widowers and 148 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.64 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 71.8% 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 1,315 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 284 households that consist of only one person and 106 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,358 households that answered this question, 20.9% were households made up of just one person and there were 15 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 323 married couples without children, 593 married couples with children There were 85 single parents with a child or children. There were 15 households that were made up of unrelated people and 43 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 670 single family homes (or 75.5% of the total) out of a total of 887 inhabited buildings. There were 150 multi-family buildings (16.9%), along with 41 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (4.6%) and 26 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.9%).
, a total of 1,235 apartments (87.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 130 apartments (9.3%) were seasonally occupied and 40 apartments (2.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 8.7 new units per 1000 residents.
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 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....
which received 38.03% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...
(31.98%), 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...
(12.98%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(10.51%). In the federal election, a total of 1,749 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 67.1%.
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 1,531 votes were cast, of which 79 or about 5.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 57.9%, 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 1,736 votes were cast, of which 90 or about 5.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 66.9%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Vétroz had an unemployment rate of 5.4%. , there were 196 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 68 businesses involved in this sector. 348 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 46 businesses in this sector. 655 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 89 businesses in this sector. There were 1,766 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 980. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 121, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 326 of which 80 or (24.5%) were in manufacturing and 220 (67.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 533. In the tertiary sector; 124 or 23.3% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 1.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 66 or 12.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 9 or 1.7% were in the information industry, 5 or 0.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 19 or 3.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 36 or 6.8% were in education and 121 or 22.7% were in health care.
, there were 381 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,299 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.5% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 3,098 or 83.9% were Roman Catholic, while 155 or 4.2% 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 11 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 0.30% of the population), there were 8 individuals (or about 0.22% 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 47 individuals (or about 1.27% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 95 (or about 2.57% 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 6 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...
, 1 person who was 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 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 104 (or about 2.82% 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 187 individuals (or about 5.07% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Vétroz about 1,189 or (32.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 424 or (11.5%) 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 424 who completed tertiary schooling, 64.6% were Swiss men, 28.3% were Swiss women, 4.2% were non-Swiss men and 2.8% were non-Swiss women.
, there was one student in Vétroz who came from another municipality, while 332 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Vétroz is home to the Bibliothèque de Vétroz-Magnot library. The library has 8,259 books or other media, and loaned out 20,575 items in the same year. It was open a total of 127 days with average of 7 hours per week during that year.