Embd is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality ...
in the district of
Visp 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
Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the S ...
in
Switzerland.
History
Embd is first mentioned in 1250 as ''Emeda''. In 1330 it was mentioned as ''Embda'' and ''Emda''.
[
]
Geography
Embd has an area, , of . Of this area, 24.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 15.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 58.7% is unproductive land.[
The municipality is located in the Visp district, on the steep, left side of the Nikolai valley. It consists of a number of scattered settlements including the ]hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...
of Flue (), which serves as the central settlement, and Kalpetran () which includes a station of the Brig-Visp-Zermatt-Bahn.
Coat of arms
The 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. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visua ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...
is ''Argent, issuant from Coupeaux Vert a Tower embattled Gules masoned, doored and windowed Sable, in chief two Keys of the last in saltire over a Latin Cross bottony Sable issuant from a Heart Gules.''
Demographics
Embd has a population () of . , 0.3% 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 -13.6%. It has changed at a rate of -11.7% due to migration and at a rate of -0.5% due to births and deaths.
accessed 29-September-2011German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
(348 or 98.6%) as their first language, French
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 ...
is the second most common (2 or 0.6%) and Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
is the third (2 or 0.6%). There is 1 person who speaks Italian.[
, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 161 Swiss men (49.5% of the population) and 1 (0.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 162 Swiss women (49.8%) and 1 (0.3%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 279 or about 79.0% were born in Embd and lived there in 2000. There were 33 or 9.3% who were born in the same canton, while 24 or 6.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 10 or 2.8% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.1%.][
, there were 146 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 194 married individuals, 13 widows or widowers and individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 123 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household.[ There were 26 households that consist of only one person and 9 households with five or more people. , a total of 118 apartments (65.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 37 apartments (20.7%) were seasonally occupied and 24 apartments (13.4%) were empty.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 5.91%.[
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 71.88% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (17.78%), the SP (4.53%) and the FDP (4.09%). In the federal election, a total of 137 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...
was 51.5%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 181 votes were cast, of which 11 or about 6.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 73.0%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 137 votes were cast, of which 2 or about 1.5% were invalid. The voter participation was 51.9%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Embd had an unemployment rate of 0.8%. , there were 57 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 25 businesses involved in this sector. 7 people were employed in the secondary sector
In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructio ...
and there were 2 businesses in this sector. 26 people were employed in the tertiary sector
The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector ( raw materials) and the secon ...
, with 8 businesses in this sector.[ There were 157 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 31.8% of the workforce.
the total number of ]full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a ...
jobs was 43. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 18, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 7, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 18. In the tertiary sector; 7 or 38.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 22.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 1 was in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 11.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 3 or 16.7% were in education.
, there were 109 workers who commuted away from the municipality.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 15.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.1% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 326 or 92.4% were Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
, while 10 or 2.8% 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 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.57% of the population). 12 (or about 3.40% 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 sufficie ...
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 3 individuals (or about 0.85% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Embd about 138 or (39.1%) 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 9 or (2.5%) have completed additional higher education (either university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
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 ar ...
''). Of the 9 who completed tertiary schooling, 88.9% were Swiss men, 11.1% were Swiss women.[
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 31 students in the Embd school system. The education system in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory ]Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...
. During that school year, there was one kindergarten class (KG1 or KG2) and 6 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
. In Embd there were a total of 3 classes and 31 students in the primary school. The secondary school 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 Embd attend their school in a neighboring municipality.Obligatorische Schulzeit
accessed 24 August 2011
, there were 11 students from Embd who attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
Official website
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Valais