Salins () was 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
Sion 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. On 1 January 2013 the former municipality of Salins merged into the municipality of
Sion.
[Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
accessed 9 February 2013
History
Salins is first mentioned in 1200 as ''Salaig''. In 1227 it was mentioned as ''Salen''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Schalein'', however, that name is no longer used.
[
]
Geography
Before the merger, Salins had a total area of .[ Of this area, or 32.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 51.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 14.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.7% is unproductive land.]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010[
The former municipality is located in the Sion district, on the left bank of the Rhone river. It consists of the village of Salins-Village and several ]hamlets
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
such as Mézeriez.
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 ''Azure, between two Mullets f SixOr as many Garbs of the same in saltire.''
Demographics
Salins had a population (as of 2010) of 982.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 9 February 2013 , 8.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
accessed 19 June 2010German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
is the second most common (23 or 2.6%) and Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
is the third (7 or 0.8%).[
, the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 426 Swiss men (43.8% of the population) and 47 (4.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 449 Swiss women (46.2%) and 50 (5.1%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 330 or about 37.4% were born in Salins and lived there in 2000. There were 356 or 40.3% who were born in the same canton, while 101 or 11.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 83 or 9.4% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.2%.][
, there were 328 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 465 married individuals, 62 widows or widowers and 28 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 339 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.[ There were 72 households that consist of only one person and 30 households with five or more people. , a total of 330 apartments (74.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 94 apartments (21.3%) were seasonally occupied and 17 apartments (3.9%) were empty.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.05%.[
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 36.54% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.37%), the SP (16.72%) and the FDP (14.98%). In the federal election, a total of 485 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 68.1%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat election a total of 380 votes were cast, of which 29 or about 7.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 55.2%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 469 votes were cast, of which 43 or about 9.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 68.2%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Salins had an unemployment rate of 3.7%. , there were 75 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 17 businesses involved in this sector. 34 people were 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 constructi ...
and there were 8 businesses in this sector. 115 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 23 businesses in this sector.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 167. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 37, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 32 of which 11 or (34.4%) were in manufacturing and 21 (65.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 98. In the tertiary sector; 30 or 30.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 32 or 32.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 4 or 4.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 2.0% were in the information industry, 12 or 12.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 8.2% were in education.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 56 workers who commuted into the municipality and 344 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 7.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 81.8% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 757 or 85.7% 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 50 or 5.7% 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 was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 8 individuals (or about 0.91% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 (or about 0.57% 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 1 individual who belonged to another church. 36 (or about 4.08% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
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 28 individuals (or about 3.17% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Salins about 328 or (37.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 110 or (12.5%) 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 110 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.4% were Swiss men, 32.7% were Swiss women, 7.3% were non-Swiss men.[
, there were 8 students in Salins who came from another municipality, while 69 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of Valais