Ayer is a village in the district of
Sierre in the
Swiss
Swiss most commonly refers to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Swiss may also refer to: Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
canton of
Valais
Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...
. An independent
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' ...
before, it merged on 1 January 2009 with neighboring
Chandolin,
Grimentz,
Saint Jean,
Saint-Luc and
Vissoie to form the municipality of
Anniviers.
[Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 19 July 2011
History
Ayer is first mentioned in 1296.
[
]
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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
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 last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
is ''Gules tripant on Coupeaux Vert an Ibex Argent in chief four Mullets of Five of the last in cross.''
Demographics
Most of the population () speaks French (513 or 90.0%) as their first language, German is the second most common (27 or 4.7%) and Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
is the third (9 or 1.6%). There are 8 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh.[
Of the population in the village, 254 or about 44.6% were born in Ayer and lived there in 2000. There were 106 or 18.6% who were born in the same canton, while 92 or 16.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 95 or 16.7% were born outside of Switzerland.][ , there were 209 people who were single and never married in the village. There were 295 married individuals, 28 widows or widowers and 38 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
There were 76 households that consist of only one person and 11 households with five or more people. , a total of 229 apartments (19.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 871 apartments (74.0%) were seasonally occupied and 77 apartments (6.5%) were empty.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 51.77% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (22.92%), the FDP (9.37%) and the SVP (7.81%). In the federal election, a total of 333 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
was 63.7%.
Economy
There were 312 residents of the village who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.9% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement 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 use ...
jobs was 254. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 13, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 116 of which 16 or (13.8%) were in manufacturing and 76 (65.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 125. In the tertiary sector; 16 or 12.8% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 26 or 20.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 59 or 47.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 6 or 4.8% were technical professionals or scientists, .Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 52 workers who commuted into the village and 104 workers who commuted away. The village is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.0 workers leaving the village for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010
Religion
From the , 444 or 77.9% were Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 38 or 6.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.40% of the population), and there were 8 individuals (or about 1.40% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 14 (or about 2.46% of the population) who were Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. 38 (or about 6.67% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic 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 24 individuals (or about 4.21% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Ayer about 215 or (37.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 57 or (10.0%) have completed additional higher education (either University
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
or a ''Fachhochschule
A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...
''). Of the 57 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.1% were Swiss men, 31.6% were Swiss women.[
, there were 61 students from Ayer who attended schools outside the village.][
]
References
External links
Official website
*
{{authority control
Former municipalities of Valais
Villages in Valais
Anniviers