Les Agettes is a former

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the district of Hérens in the canton 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. The municipality of Les Agettes merged on 1 January 2017 into

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Pl ...

History

Les Agettes is first mentioned in 1190 as ''Agietes''.

Geography

Les Agettes had an area, , of . Of this area, or 20.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 67.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 10.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 1.0% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data Retrieved 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 6.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.5%. Out of the forested land, 61.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 6.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for growing crops and 11.4% is pastures and 7.7% is used for alpine pastures. The former municipality was located in the Hérens district, on the slopes south of

and above the Rhone valley. It is composed of three small villages: Crête-à-l'Œil, La Vernaz, and Les Agettes, which range in altitude between as well as scattered alpine pastures and the vacation resort of Mayens de l'Ours (built in 1982).

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 vi ...

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 its ...

is ''Per pale Argent a Crosier issuant and a Sword inverted in saltire in chief a Mullet of Five all Gules and Azure a Tower Argent masoned, windowed and doored Sable, overall a base Vert.''

Demographics

Les Agettes had a population () of 347. , 10.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
Retrieved 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 28.1%. It has changed at a rate of 24.1% due to migration and at a rate of 4.4% due to births and deaths.
Retrieved 7 September 2011 Most of the population () speaks French (257 or 95.2%) as their first language,

German 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 **Ge ...

is the second most common (8 or 3.0%) and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

is the third (3 or 1.1%). , the gender distribution of the population was 49.4% male and 50.6% female. The population was made up of 155 Swiss men (44.8% of the population) and 16 (4.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 149 Swiss women (43.1%) and 26 (7.5%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
Retrieved 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality 104 or about 38.5% were born in Les Agettes and lived there in 2000. There were 82 or 30.4% who were born in the same canton, while 51 or 18.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 26 or 9.6% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.1%. , there were 103 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 139 married individuals, 20 widows or widowers and 8 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
Retrieved 2 February 2011 , there were 112 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 39 households that consist of only one person and 10 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 116 households that answered this question, 33.6% were households made up of just one person and there was 1 adult who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 32 married couples without children, 33 married couples with children There were 6 single parents with a child or children. There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 4 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 239 single family homes (or 78.6% of the total) out of a total of 304 inhabited buildings. There were 37 multi-family buildings (12.2%), along with 21 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (6.9%) and 7 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.3%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
Retrieved 28 January 2011 , a total of 105 apartments (25.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 268 apartments (66.2%) were seasonally occupied and 32 apartments (7.9%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.47%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1080 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:310 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:60 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:12 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1557 from:start till:50 text:"ca. 50" bar:1798 from:start till:143 text:"143" bar:1850 from:start till:210 text:"210" bar:1860 from:start till:228 text:"228" bar:1870 from:start till:268 text:"268" bar:1880 from:start till:270 text:"270" bar:1888 from:start till:251 text:"251" bar:1900 from:start till:278 text:"278" bar:1910 from:start till:310 text:"310" bar:1920 from:start till:288 text:"288" bar:1930 from:start till:247 text:"247" bar:1941 from:start till:270 text:"270" bar:1950 from:start till:239 text:"239" bar:1960 from:start till:193 text:"193" bar:1970 from:start till:150 text:"150" bar:1980 from:start till:193 text:"193" bar:1990 from:start till:237 text:"237" bar:2000 from:start till:270 text:"270"

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 ...

the most popular party was the CVP which received 43.54% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (21.11%), the SVP (15.36%) and the FDP (6.69%). In the federal election, a total of 159 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 65.7%.

Economy

, Les Agettes had an unemployment rate of 6.7%. , there were 14 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 4 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 constructi ...

and there were 4 businesses in this sector. 11 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 second ...

, with 5 businesses in this sector. There were 136 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.4% 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 18. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 6, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 4 of which 2 or (50.0%) were in manufacturing and 2 (50.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 8. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 25.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 50.0% were in education.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
Retrieved 28 January 2011 , there were 9 workers who commuted into the municipality and 118 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 13.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 11.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 78.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 231 or 85.6% 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 let ...

, while 9 or 3.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church. 16 (or about 5.93% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 13 individuals (or about 4.81% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Les Agettes about 101 or (37.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 38 or (14.1%) 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. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 38 who completed tertiary schooling, 60.5% were Swiss men, 23.7% were Swiss women. , there were 23 students from Les Agettes who attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Agettes Former municipalities of Valais