Arbaz is a
municipality in the district of
Sion in the
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative division terminology
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and ent ...
of
Valais in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
History
Arbaz is first mentioned about 1185 as ''Alba''. In 1338 it was mentioned as ''Arba''.
[
]
Geography
Arbaz has an area, , of . Of this area, or 22.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 25.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 47.4% is unproductive land.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 19.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.9% is used for growing crops and 5.3% is pastures and 15.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 17.2% is unproductive vegetation and 30.3% is too rocky for vegetation.[
The municipality is located in the Sion district, at an elevation of between . Until 1877 it was part of the municipality of Ayent. The village of Arbaz was partially destroyed by fire in 1924, but has been rebuilt. Almost half of the houses in the village are vacation homes. It is situated on the north bank of the ]Rhône River
The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...
.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Azure a Cross Gules, overall standing on issuant from base a triple mount Or a Lion rampant reguardant Or langued Gules.''
Demographics
Arbaz has a population () of . , 12.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008]
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 35.9%. It has changed at a rate of 37% due to migration and at a rate of 1.6% due to births and deaths.
accessed 26-September-2011French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
(727 or 90.9%) as their first language, German is the second most common (40 or 5.0%) and Portuguese is the third (13 or 1.6%). There is 1 person who speaks Italian.[
, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 475 Swiss men (43.3% of the population) and 72 (6.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 485 Swiss women (44.2%) and 66 (6.0%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 435 or about 54.4% were born in Arbaz and lived there in 2000. There were 154 or 19.3% who were born in the same canton, while 113 or 14.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 88 or 11.0% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.1%.][
, there were 301 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 430 married individuals, 46 widows or widowers and 23 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 322 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household.[ There were 85 households that consist of only one person and 22 households with five or more people. , a total of 318 apartments (45.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 335 apartments (47.7%) were seasonally occupied and 49 apartments (7.0%) were empty.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.2 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.72%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election
This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...
the most popular party was the CVP which received 42.43% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (21.32%), the SVP (16.47%) and the FDP (8.33%). In the federal election, a total of 483 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 65.6%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 436 votes were cast, of which 42 or about 9.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 59.1%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 465 votes were cast, of which 9 or about 1.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 65.8%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Arbaz had an unemployment rate of 3.4%. , there were 26 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 69 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 12 businesses in this sector. 79 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 23 businesses in this sector.[ There were 347 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.1% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 92. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 17, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 37 of which 13 or (35.1%) were in manufacturing and 24 (64.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 38. In the tertiary sector; 8 or 21.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 5.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 7 or 18.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 7.9% were in the information industry, 3 or 7.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 13.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 1 was in education.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3]
accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 20 workers who commuted into the municipality and 254 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 12.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 76.3% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 657 or 82.1% were Roman Catholic, while 63 or 7.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 5 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.63% of the population), and there were 25 individuals (or about 3.13% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 (or about 0.75% of the population) who were Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic. There were 1 individual who belonged to another church. 44 (or about 5.50% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
or atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and 11 individuals (or about 1.38% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Arbaz about 285 or (35.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education
Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...
, and 103 or (12.9%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule
A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...
''). Of the 103 who completed tertiary schooling, 54.4% were Swiss men, 28.2% were Swiss women, 10.7% were non-Swiss men and 6.8% were non-Swiss women.[
, there were 2 students in Arbaz who came from another municipality, while 42 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
References
External links
Official website
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Valais
Articles which contain graphical timelines