Täsch 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
Visp 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 ...
. It is located about north of
Zermatt
Zermatt (, ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Visp (district), Visp in the German language, German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is cl ...
. The local language is
Swiss German
Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...
.
History
Täsch is first mentioned in 1302 as ''Tech''. In
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
it was known as ''Pera''.
[
]
Geography
Täsch has an area, , of . Of this area, 11.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 9.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and 78.1% is unproductive land.[
The municipality is located in the Visp district, in the Mattertal valley, which contains almost all the highest peaks in the ]Alps
The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia.
...
such as Monte Rosa
Monte Rosa (; ; ; or ; ) is a mountain massif in the eastern part of the Pennine Alps, on the border between Italy (Piedmont and Aosta Valley) and Switzerland (Valais). The highest peak of the massif, amongst several peaks of over , is the D ...
, Dom and Weisshorn. The high Täschhorn lies directly above the village. It consists of the village of Täsch and the 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 ...
of Zermettjen and Täschberg as well as the Täschalp hiking region.
Transportation
Zermatt is a car-free town at the end of the valley, so the only connection is the frequent train shuttle from Täsch railway station. Car drivers can park their cars at Täsch and continue to Zermatt by train.
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 Fess Argent, in chief a Mullet f Sixof the same.''
Demographics
Täsch has a population () of . , 45.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Superweb database – Gemeinde Statistics 1981–2008]
accessed 19 June 2010 From 2000 to 2010, the population has changed at a rate of 27.6%. It has changed at a rate of 21% due to migration and at a rate of 4.7% due to births and deaths.
accessed 4 October 2011Serbo-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 second most common (36 or 4.3%) and Portuguese is the third (32 or 3.9%). There are 7 people who speak French, 7 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh.[
, the population was 51.0% male and 49.0% female. The population was made up of 282 Swiss men (26.1% of the population) and 270 (25.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 283 Swiss women (26.2%) and 247 (22.8%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 435 or about 52.3% were born in Täsch and lived there in 2000. There were 137 or 16.5% who were born in the same canton, while 49 or 5.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 197 or 23.7% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 63.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 10.5%.][
, there were 393 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 368 married individuals, 40 widows or widowers and 30 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 310 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household.[ There were 83 households that consist of only one person and 22 households with five or more people. , a total of 288 apartments (51.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 258 apartments (46.3%) were seasonally occupied and 11 apartments (2.0%) 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 16.6 new units per 1000 residents.[
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 53.42% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (25.74%), the SP (18.84%) and the Green Party (0.9%). In the federal election, a total of 229 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 48.9%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 229 votes were cast, of which 15 or about 6.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 48.1%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 229 votes were cast, of which 5 or about 2.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 49.3%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Täsch had an unemployment rate of 6.2%. , there were 13 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 18 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 5 businesses in this sector. 214 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 35 businesses in this sector.[ There were 449 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.6% 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 198. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 5, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 17 of which 5 or (29.4%) were in manufacturing and 12 (70.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 176. In the tertiary sector; 22 or 12.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 48 or 27.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 71 or 40.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 2 or 1.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, 5 or 2.8% were in education and 22 or 12.5% were 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 39 workers who commuted into the municipality and 315 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 49.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 26.9% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 709 or 85.3% 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 18 or 2.2% 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 0.96% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.24% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 10 individuals (or about 1.20% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 50 (or about 6.02% 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 2 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 ...
. 16 (or about 1.93% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 21 individuals (or about 2.53% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Täsch about 255 or (30.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 41 or (4.9%) 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 41 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.1% were Swiss men, 22.0% were Swiss women, 12.2% were non-Swiss men.[
, there was one student in Täsch who came from another municipality, while 31 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tasch
Municipalities of Valais