Mollens () is a former
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
Sierre 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 ...
. On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Mollens,
Chermignon,
Montana
Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...
and
Randogne merged into the new municipality of
Crans-Montana.
History
Mollens is first mentioned about 1250 as ''Molaen''. In 1286 it was mentioned as ''Moleing''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Molei'', however, that name is no longer used.
[
]
Geography
Mollens had an area, , of . Of this area, or 26.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 32.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 37.6% is unproductive land.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 28.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 2.1% is pastures and 24.0% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 0.6% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 4.2% is unproductive vegetation, 32.3% is too rocky for vegetation and 1.1% of the land is covered by glaciers.[
The former municipality is located in the Sierre district, on the right bank of the Rhone river. The municipality stretches from an elevation of . It consists of the villages of Mollens and Cordona, the scattered settlements of Conzor, Laques and Saint-Maurice-de-Laques as well as the resort village of Aminona.
]
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 ''Gules, a Mill-wheel Argent, in chief dexter a Sun in Splendour Or and sinister a Grape of the same slipped Vert.''
Demographics
Mollens has a population () of 269. , 23.6% 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 27.4%. It has changed at a rate of 29.7% due to migration and at a rate of 0.6% due to births and deaths.
accessed 23-September-2011[
, the population was 51.2% male and 48.8% female. The population was made up of 329 Swiss men (37.2% of the population) and 124 (14.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 331 Swiss women (37.4%) and 100 (11.3%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 199 or about 25.8% were born in Mollens and lived there in 2000. There were 252 or 32.7% who were born in the same canton, while 137 or 17.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 164 or 21.3% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.8%.][
, there were 289 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 396 married individuals, 32 widows or widowers and 53 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 302 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.[ There were 102 households that consist of only one person and 14 households with five or more people. , a total of 292 apartments (29.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 655 apartments (66.2%) were seasonally occupied and 43 apartments (4.3%) 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 14.7 new units per 1000 residents.[
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Heritage sites of national significance
The Fairy Rock () 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 44.47% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.17%), the SP (16.22%) and the FDP (9.01%). In the federal election, a total of 365 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 67.8%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 302 votes were cast, of which 35 or about 11.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 56.2%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 361 votes were cast, of which 37 or about 10.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 69.4%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Mollens had an unemployment rate of 4.8%. , there were 7 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 2 businesses involved in this sector. 38 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 7 businesses in this sector. 57 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 16 businesses in this sector.[ There were 384 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.1% 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 82. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 4, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 37 of which 3 or (8.1%) were in manufacturing and 34 (91.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 41. In the tertiary sector; 6 or 14.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 27 or 65.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, .Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 49 workers who commuted into the municipality and 294 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 7.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 72.1% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 581 or 75.5% 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 84 or 10.9% 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 6 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.78% of the population), and there were 16 individuals (or about 2.08% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 4 (or about 0.52% 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 was 1 person who was 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 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 57 (or about 7.40% 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 27 individuals (or about 3.51% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Mollens about 264 or (34.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 135 or (17.5%) 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 135 who completed tertiary schooling, 44.4% were Swiss men, 30.4% were Swiss women, 15.6% were non-Swiss men and 9.6% were non-Swiss women.[
, there were 111 students from Mollens who attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
References
External links
Official website
*
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of Valais
Cultural property of national significance in Valais