Gampel 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

Leuk Leuk (french: Loèche-Ville) is a municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013, the former municipality of Erschmatt merged into the municipality of Leuk.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 cantons of Switzerland, 26 ...

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 ...

. Gampel should not be confused with the municipality

Gampelen Gampelen (french: Champion) is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Gampelen should not be confused with the municipality Gampel in the canton of Valais. History Gampelen is first menti ...

in the canton of

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

. It was an independent municipality until January 1, 2009, when it merged with

Bratsch Bratsch is a village in the municipality of Gampel-Bratsch in the district of Leuk of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Bratsch was an independent municipality until January 1, 2009, when it merged with Gampel to form Gampel-Bratsch.

to form

Gampel-Bratsch Gampel-Bratsch is a municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It was formed on January 1, 2009.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 19 July 2011

History

Gampel is first mentioned in 1238 as ''Champilz''.

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 vis ...

of the village

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

is ''Azure in dexter a Mullet of Six Or in sinister an Increscent inverted Argent in base Coupeaux of the second.''

Demographics

Gampel has a population () of 1,385.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 08-September-2011 Most of the population () speaks

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 ...

(1,188 or 91.3%) as their first language,

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

is the second most common (33 or 2.5%) 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 and ...

is the third (25 or 1.9%). There are 15 people who speak French, 22 people who speak

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 ...

. Of the population in the village 662 or about 50.9% were born in Gampel and lived there in 2000. There were 388 or 29.8% who were born in the same canton, while 65 or 5.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 151 or 11.6% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 547 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 681 married individuals, 50 widows or widowers and 23 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 There were 147 households that consist of only one person and 44 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 520 households that answered this question, 28.3% were households made up of just one person and there were 5 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 127 married couples without children, 199 married couples with children There were 23 single parents with a child or children. There were 4 households that were made up of unrelated people and 15 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 177 single family homes (or 53.5% of the total) out of a total of 331 inhabited buildings. There were 93 multi-family buildings (28.1%), along with 39 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (11.8%) and 22 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (6.6%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , a total of 474 apartments (70.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 167 apartments (25.0%) were seasonally occupied and 28 apartments (4.2%) were empty. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:2100 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:400 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:80 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:330 text:"330" bar:1860 from:start till:389 text:"389" bar:1870 from:start till:407 text:"407" bar:1880 from:start till:421 text:"421" bar:1888 from:start till:416 text:"416" bar:1900 from:start till:531 text:"531" bar:1910 from:start till:2086 text:"2,086" bar:1920 from:start till:685 text:"685" bar:1920 at: 1800 text:"Construction of the Lötschberg Tunnel" bar:1930 from:start till:664 text:"664" bar:1941 from:start till:768 text:"768" bar:1950 from:start till:798 text:"798" bar:1960 from:start till:806 text:"806" bar:1970 from:start till:1021 text:"1,021" bar:1980 from:start till:1069 text:"1,069" bar:1990 from:start till:1124 text:"1,124" bar:2000 from:start till:1301 text:"1,301"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 65.42% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.42%), the SP (7.88%) and the FDP (3.95%). In the federal election, a total of 804 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 Unive ...

was 84.9%.

Economy

, Gampel had an unemployment rate of 0%. , there were people employed in the primary economic sector and about businesses involved in this sector. No one was 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 construction. ...

or 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 ...

. There were 645 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.9% 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 employee, employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to me ...

jobs was 408. 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 195 of which 59 or (30.3%) were in manufacturing and 136 (69.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 196. In the tertiary sector; 47 or 24.0% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 14 or 7.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 29 or 14.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 15 or 7.7% were the insurance or financial industry, 19 or 9.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 28 or 14.3% were in education and 15 or 7.7% were in health care. , there were 322 workers who commuted into the village and 397 workers who commuted away. The village is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.2 workers leaving the village for every one entering. About 1.9% of the workforce coming into Gampel are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, % used public transportation to get to work, and % used a private car.

Religion

From the , 1,144 or 87.9% 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 lette ...

, while 24 or 1.8% 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 18 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.38% of the population), and there were 16 individuals (or about 1.23% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 60 (or about 4.61% 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 4 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. 8 (or about 0.61% 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 ...

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 35 individuals (or about 2.69% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Gampel about 481 or (37.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 109 or (8.4%) 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, t ...

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 109 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.4% were Swiss men, 13.8% were Swiss women, 7.3% were non-Swiss men and 5.5% were non-Swiss women. During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 308 students in the Gampel school system. The

education system The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining education within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or early childhood education ...

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 2 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 42 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 e ...

. In Gampel there were a total of 8 classes and 168 students in the primary school. The

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 140 lower secondary students who attended school in Gampel.Obligatorische Schulzeit
accessed 24 August 2011 All the upper secondary students attended school in another municipality. , there were 135 students in Gampel who came from another village, while 37 residents attended schools outside the village.

References

External links

Official website
* {{Authority control Former municipalities of Valais