Varen (french: Varone) is a

municipality 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 ...

in the district of

Leuk Leuk (french: Loèche-Ville) is a municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013, the former municipality of Erschmatt merged into the municipality of Leuk.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 26 cantons forming the S ...

in Switzerland.

History

Varen is first mentioned in 1225 as ''Varonam''. Varen was used as a setting for the British/American crime drama "The Missing".

Geography

Varen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 31.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 34.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 28.6% 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 1.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, 30.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 1.6% is pastures, while 9.3% is used for orchards or vine crops and 20.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 9.8% is unproductive vegetation and 18.9% is too rocky for vegetation. The municipality is located in the Leuk district, on the right slope of the Rhone above the Pfynwald (Pfyn woods).

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 vi ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

is ''Or, a Tree Vert eradicated and trunked proper in base Coupeaux Vert on a Chief Azure three Mullets of Five Argent.''

Demographics

Varen has a population () of . , 5.8% 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 (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -7.3%. It has changed at a rate of 0.9% due to migration and at a rate of -2.7% due to births and deaths.
accessed 09-September-2011 Most of the population () speaks

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 **Ge ...

(566 or 94.0%) as their first language,

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

is the second most common (20 or 3.3%) and French is the third (8 or 1.3%). There are 3 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 ...

. , the gender distribution of the population was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. The population was made up of 287 Swiss men (47.0% of the population) and 11 (1.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 289 Swiss women (47.4%) and 23 (3.8%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality 379 or about 63.0% were born in Varen and lived there in 2000. There were 133 or 22.1% who were born in the same canton, while 41 or 6.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 41 or 6.8% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 64% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.1%. , there were 221 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 322 married individuals, 46 widows or widowers and 13 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 254 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 71 households that consist of only one person and 11 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 256 households that answered this question, 27.7% were households made up of just one person and there were 6 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 78 married couples without children, 79 married couples with children There were 15 single parents with a child or children. There were 5 households that were made up of unrelated people and 2 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 123 single family homes (or 58.9% of the total) out of a total of 209 inhabited buildings. There were 61 multi-family buildings (29.2%), along with 15 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (7.2%) and 10 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.8%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , a total of 242 apartments (75.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 58 apartments (18.1%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (6.5%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.65%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:630 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1798 from:start till:282 text:"282" bar:1850 from:start till:413 text:"413" bar:1860 from:start till:451 text:"451" bar:1870 from:start till:495 text:"495" bar:1880 from:start till:514 text:"514" bar:1888 from:start till:520 text:"520" bar:1900 from:start till:484 text:"484" bar:1910 from:start till:500 text:"500" bar:1920 from:start till:515 text:"515" bar:1930 from:start till:530 text:"530" bar:1941 from:start till:542 text:"542" bar:1950 from:start till:605 text:"605" bar:1960 from:start till:585 text:"585" bar:1970 from:start till:571 text:"571" bar:1980 from:start till:614 text:"614" bar:1990 from:start till:622 text:"622" bar:2000 from:start till:602 text:"602"

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 ...

the most popular party was the CVP which received 74.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (11.3%), the SP (9.49%) and the FDP (2.8%). In the federal election, a total of 364 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 Univ ...

was 71.1%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 390 votes were cast, of which 17 or about 4.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 79.0%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 359 votes were cast, of which 14 or about 3.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 71.5%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Varen had an unemployment rate of 0.9%. , there were 120 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 58 businesses involved in this sector. 16 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 7 businesses in this sector. 57 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 second ...

, with 17 businesses in this sector. There were 304 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.5% of the workforce. the total number of

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit 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 used to measure a ...

jobs was 116. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 60, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 13 of which 6 or (46.2%) were in manufacturing and 5 (38.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 43. In the tertiary sector; 15 or 34.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 6 or 14.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 6 or 14.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 8 or 18.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 3 or 7.0% were in education and 1 was in health care. , there were 20 workers who commuted into the municipality and 201 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 10.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 19.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.9% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 544 or 90.4% 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 let ...

, while 23 or 3.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 22 members of an Orthodox church (or about 3.65% of the population). There were 2 (or about 0.33% of the population) who were Islamic. 7 (or about 1.16% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 4 individuals (or about 0.66% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Varen about 191 or (31.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 28 or (4.7%) 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 ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 28 who completed tertiary schooling, 71.4% were Swiss men, 14.3% were Swiss women. During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 43 students in the Varen school system. The

education system The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining education within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or early childhood education ...

in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

. During that school year, there was one kindergarten class (KG1 or KG2) and 12 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

. In Varen there were a total of 3 classes and 43 students in the primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower and upper secondary students from Varen attend their school in a neighboring municipality.Obligatorische Schulzeit
accessed 24 August 2011 , there was one student in Varen who came from another municipality, while 30 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Municipalities of Valais