Montana, Switzerland

Montana is a former municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It was one of the six municipalities that form the ski resort Crans-Montana (together with Icogne, Lens, Randogne, Mollens and Chermignon). On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Chermignon, Mollens (VS), Montana and Randogne merged to form the new municipality of Crans-Montana.

History

Montana is first mentioned in 1243 as ''Montana''. In 1905 it separated from Lens to form an independent municipality.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 19 July 2011

Geography

Montana had an area, , of . Of this area, or 25.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 42.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 28.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 2.0% is unproductive land.
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 15.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.2%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.5%. Out of the forested land, 38.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.6% is used for growing crops and 12.5% is pastures, while 10.4% is used for orchards or vine crops and 2.2% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. Of the unproductive areas, and 1.2% is too rocky for vegetation.

The former municipality is located in the Sierre district, above the right bank of the Rhone. It consists of the villages of Montana and Corin, part of the Champzabé, the hamlet of Diogne as well as the resort of Montana-Vermala (located at an elevation of and shared between Montana and Randogne).

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Gules, two crosiers Or in saltire over those issuant from Coupeaux vert a Pine-tree of the same trunked Gules.''

Demographics

Montana had a population () of 2,363. , 27.8% 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 -5.1%. It has changed at a rate of -2.8% due to migration and at a rate of -0.8% due to births and deaths.
accessed 23-September-2011

Most of the population () speaks French (1,883 or 81.7%) as their first language, German is the second most common (125 or 5.4%) and Italian is the third (109 or 4.7%).

, the population was 49.0% male and 51.0% female. The population was made up of 799 Swiss men (35.2% of the population) and 312 (13.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 854 Swiss women (37.6%) and 304 (13.4%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 820 or about 35.6% were born in Montana and lived there in 2000. There were 493 or 21.4% who were born in the same canton, while 268 or 11.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 639 or 27.7% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.2%.

, there were 903 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,168 married individuals, 129 widows or widowers and 105 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

, there were 998 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 382 households that consist of only one person and 49 households with five or more people. , a total of 874 apartments (39.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,284 apartments (58.5%) were seasonally occupied and 37 apartments (1.7%) 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 0.9 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.56%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:1687 from:start till:151 text:"151"
bar:1798 from:start till:240 text:"240"
bar:1850 from:start till:303 text:"303"
bar:1910 from:start till:547 text:"547"
bar:1920 from:start till:791 text:"791"
bar:1930 from:start till:1485 text:"1,485"
bar:1941 from:start till:1279 text:"1,279"
bar:1950 from:start till:1715 text:"1,715"
bar:1960 from:start till:1543 text:"1,543"
bar:1970 from:start till:1725 text:"1,725"
bar:1980 from:start till:1908 text:"1,908"
bar:1990 from:start till:2189 text:"2,189"
bar:2000 from:start till:2305 text:"2,305"

Heritage sites of national significance

The Hotel Bella Lui is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 42.96% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (18.8%), the SP (17.03%) and the FDP (12.83%). In the federal election, a total of 872 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 59.6%.

In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 758 votes were cast, of which 67 or about 8.8% were invalid. The voter participation was 53.2%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 848 votes were cast, of which 49 or about 5.8% were invalid. The voter participation was 60.3%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Montana had an unemployment rate of 4%. , there were 64 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 29 businesses involved in this sector. 206 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 23 businesses in this sector. 1,054 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 135 businesses in this sector. There were 1,199 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 46.3% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 1,141. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 31, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 192 of which 28 or (14.6%) were in manufacturing and 163 (84.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 918. In the tertiary sector; 188 or 20.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 22 or 2.4% were in the movement and storage of goods, 272 or 29.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 14 or 1.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 18 or 2.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 123 or 13.4% were in education and 166 or 18.1% were in health care.

, there were 1,250 workers who commuted into the municipality and 527 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.4 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 6.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 55% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 1,816 or 78.8% were Roman Catholic, while 158 or 6.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 91 members of an Orthodox church (or about 3.95% of the population), and there were 23 individuals (or about 1.00% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 10 individuals (or about 0.43% of the population) who were Jewish, and 19 (or about 0.82% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 3 individuals who were Buddhist and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 87 (or about 3.77% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 107 individuals (or about 4.64% of the population) did not answer the question.

Climate

Between 1991 and 2020 Montana had an average of 103.8 days of rain or snow per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was December during which time Montana received an average of of rain or snow. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 9.0 days. The month with the most days of precipitation was June, with an average of 10.3, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year was April with an average of of precipitation over 7.5 days. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Montana has a marine west coast climate, abbreviated "Cfb" on climate maps.

Education

In Montana about 744 or (32.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 356 or (15.4%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule''). Of the 356 who completed tertiary schooling, 39.9% were Swiss men, 28.9% were Swiss women, 18.5% were non-Swiss men and 12.6% were non-Swiss women. , there were 507 students in Montana who came from another municipality, while 144 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website

{{Authority control

Former municipalities of Valais
Cultural property of national significance in Valais