The district of Sion is a district of the 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 ...

. It has a population of (as of ).

Municipalities

It comprises the following

municipalities 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 ...

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 district

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 ''Per pale Argent two Mullets of Five Gules, and Gules.''

Demographics

Sion has a population () of . Most of the population () speaks French (31,488 or 85.1%) as their first language,

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 **Ger ...

is the second most common (1,878 or 5.1%) and

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

is the third (1,029 or 2.8%). There are 915 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 ...

and 20 people who speak Romansh. , the gender distribution of the population was 48.3% male and 51.7% female. The population was made up of 15,250 Swiss men (36.8% of the population) and 4,787 (11.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 16,910 Swiss women (40.8%) and 4,537 (10.9%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the district 14,700 or about 39.7% were born in Sion and lived there in 2000. There were 9,873 or 26.7% who were born in the same canton, while 3,986 or 10.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 7,258 or 19.6% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 15,728 people who were single and never married in the district. There were 17,375 married individuals, 2,099 widows or widowers and 1,791 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 There were 4,974 households that consist of only one person and 967 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 15,344 households that answered this question, 32.4% were households made up of just one person and there were 146 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 3,694 married couples without children, 4,762 married couples with children There were 1,065 single parents with a child or children. There were 245 households that were made up of unrelated people and 458 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. 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:37000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:7000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:1400 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:6287 text:"6,287" bar:1860 from:start till:7964 text:"7,964" bar:1870 from:start till:9103 text:"9,103" bar:1880 from:start till:9318 text:"9,318" bar:1888 from:start till:9911 text:"9,911" bar:1900 from:start till:10871 text:"10,871" bar:1910 from:start till:11765 text:"11,765" bar:1920 from:start till:12207 text:"12,207" bar:1930 from:start till:13429 text:"13,429" bar:1941 from:start till:15430 text:"15,430" bar:1950 from:start till:17327 text:"17,327" bar:1960 from:start till:22581 text:"22,581" bar:1970 from:start till:28305 text:"28,305" bar:1980 from:start till:30273 text:"30,273" bar:1990 from:start till:33976 text:"33,976" bar:2000 from:start till:36993 text:"36,993"

Mergers and name changes

*On 17 November 1962, Bramois merged into the municipality of

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Pl ...

.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011 * On 1 January 2013 the former municipality of Salins merged into the municipality of Sion. * On 1 January 2017 the former municipality of

Les Agettes Les Agettes is a former municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The municipality of Les Agettes merged on 1 January 2017 into Sion. History Les Agettes is first mentioned in 1190 as ''Agietes''. Geogra ...

merged into the municipality of Sion.

Politics

In the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...

, the most popular party was the CVP which received 37.31% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (18.59%), the SVP (15.81%) and the FDP (13.65%). In the federal election, a total of 15,459 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 59.9%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election, a total of 13,603 votes were cast, of which 1,334 or about 9.8% were invalid. The voter participation was 52.7%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 15,234 votes were cast, of which 1,196 or about 7.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 60.0%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.Ständeratswahl 2007
accessed 24 August 2011

Religion

From the , 29,644 or 80.1% 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 1,708 or 4.6% 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 241 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.65% of the population), there were 22 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 629 individuals (or about 1.70% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 16 individuals (or about 0.04% of the population) who were

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and 1,429 (or about 3.86% 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 93 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 ...

, 52 individuals who were

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and 25 individuals who belonged to another church. 1,704 (or about 4.61% 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 1,735 individuals (or about 4.69% of the population) did not answer the question.

Weather

Sion town has an average of 82.6 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

. The wettest month is December during which time Sion receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 7.4 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is August, with an average of 8.2, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is April with an average of of precipitation over 5.9 days., the Sion weather station elevation is 482 meters above sea level.

Education

In Sion about 11,917 or (32.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 4,922 or (13.3%) 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 4,922 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.8% were Swiss men, 30.7% were Swiss women, 7.0% were non-Swiss men and 5.6% were non-Swiss women.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sion (District) Districts of Valais