Champéry (; ) 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
Monthey in the
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 ...
in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.
History
Champéry is first mentioned in 1286 as ''Champery''.
[
The Hotel Dent-du-Midi opened in 1857. In 1969, Champéry became one of the founding villages of the ]Portes du Soleil
Les Portes du Soleil (, literally "The Doors of the Sun") is a major skisports destination in the Alps, encompassing twelve resorts between Mont Blanc in France and Lake Geneva in Switzerland. With more than 650 km of marked pistes (claime ...
ski area and resort.
Geography
Champéry has an area, , of . Of this area, 32.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 33.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and 30.3% is unproductive land.[
The municipality is located in the Monthey district, in the Val-d'Illiez, on the French border. It consists of the ]linear village
In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties:
* linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping'');
* linearity of a ''polynomial''.
An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x)= ...
of Champéry, which was part of the municipality of Val-d'Illiez until 1839 when it became independent.
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 municipal 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 ''Quartered Argent issuant from three Mounts Vert as many Pine Trees of the same trunked proper and Azure statant on ground Or a man proper clad of the same troused Argent holding a bag of the same sowing seeds Or from it.''
Demographics
Champéry has a population () of . , 23.0% 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 12.8%. It has changed at a rate of 11.7% due to migration and at a rate of 0% due to births and deaths.
accessed 19-September-2011[
, the population was 51.9% male and 48.1% female. The population was made up of 504 Swiss men (39.5% of the population) and 158 (12.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 473 Swiss women (37.1%) and 140 (11.0%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 509 or about 46.0% were born in Champéry and lived there in 2000. There were 168 or 15.2% who were born in the same canton, while 192 or 17.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 201 or 18.2% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.6%.][
, there were 436 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 551 married individuals, 62 widows or widowers and 58 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 458 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household.[ There were 160 households that consist of only one person and 31 households with five or more people. , a total of 433 apartments (28.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,008 apartments (65.8%) were seasonally occupied and 91 apartments (5.9%) 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 23.5 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.68%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 35.76% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (25.7%), the SVP (20.71%) and the SP (9.8%). In the federal election, a total of 464 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 54.0%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 393 votes were cast, of which 26 or about 6.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 49.9%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 446 votes were cast, of which 23 or about 5.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 55.7%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Champéry had an unemployment rate of 2.8%. , there were 36 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 43 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 14 businesses in this sector. 400 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 ...
, with 69 businesses in this sector.[ There were 525 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.0% 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 383. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 29, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 40 of which 15 or (37.5%) were in manufacturing and 13 (32.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 314. In the tertiary sector; 50 or 15.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 3.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 116 or 36.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 0.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 0.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 57 or 18.2% were in education and 1 was in health care.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 103 workers who commuted into the municipality and 196 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 4.9% of the workforce coming into Champéry are coming from outside Switzerland.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 4.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 61% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 818 or 73.9% 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 103 or 9.3% 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 5 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.45% of the population), and there were 32 individuals (or about 2.89% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 7 (or about 0.63% 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. There were 3 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 96 (or about 8.67% 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 55 individuals (or about 4.97% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Champéry about 337 or (30.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 136 or (12.3%) 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 136 who completed tertiary schooling, 48.5% were Swiss men, 20.6% were Swiss women, 16.9% were non-Swiss men and 14.0% were non-Swiss women.[
, there was one student in Champéry who came from another municipality, while 77 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
Sport
Winter
The Champéry – Planachaux cable car (125 passengers) and the new 6-seater chairlift in Grand-Paradis take skiers to the Portes du Soleil
Les Portes du Soleil (, literally "The Doors of the Sun") is a major skisports destination in the Alps, encompassing twelve resorts between Mont Blanc in France and Lake Geneva in Switzerland. With more than 650 km of marked pistes (claime ...
recreational area, at an altitude of . With 194 ski lifts and over of ski slopes, this is the largest international ski area in the world.
Champéry is home to the Skating School Of Switzerland, founded by Swiss Figure Skater Stéphane Lambiel.[Skating School of Switzerland]
accessed 20 August 2021
Champery also has one of the steepest ski slopes in the world which Red Bull
Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...
made a competition on it.
Summer
The Portes du Soleil recreational area keeps 24 chairlifts open for the summer, giving access to over of paths. The Dents du Midi and the Dents Blanches mountain ridges also offer walks and hikes. Champéry's Palladium, the National Centre for Ice Sports, offers indoor and outdoor activities and regularly hosts national and international ice-sports training camps and competitions.
Transport
Champéry is on the Aigle–Ollon–Monthey–Champéry railway line (AOMC): Aigle – Ollon – Monthey – Champéry. Aigle is a town on the Swiss Federal Railway and allows train connections to Geneva, Bern, and Basel.
Image:Champery-01.jpg
Image:Champery-03.jpg
Image:Champery-04.jpg
References
External links
Official site of the commune of ChampéryOfficial site of the "Office du Tourisme"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Champery
Municipalities of Valais
Ski areas and resorts in Switzerland
Venues of the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics