Leuk (district)

Leuk
Bezirk Leuk
—  District  —
Country  Switzerland
Canton  Valais
Capital Leuk
Area
 • Total 335.9 km2 (129.7 sq mi)
Population (2010)
 • Total 12,294
 • Density 36.6/km2 (94.8/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Municipalities 14

The district of Leuk (French: Loèche) is a district in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a population of 12,294 (as of 31 December 2010).[1]

Contents

Municipalities

It contains the following municipalities:

Municipality Population
(31 December 2010)[1]		 Area
km²[2]
Agarn 789 7.66
Albinen 278 15.48
Ergisch 188 30.13
Erschmatt 278 11.2
Gampel-Bratsch 1,909 23.09
Guttet-Feschel 444 10.51
Inden 111 9.86
Leuk 3,381 44.16
Leukerbad 1,633 67.23
Oberems 135 50.27
Salgesch 1,367 11.34
Turtmann 1,010 41.09
Unterems 147 1.18
Varen 624 12.81
Total 12,294 336.01

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a Griffin rampant cowed Or langued and armed Argent holding a sword of the last.[3]

Demographics

Leuk has a population (as of December 2010) of 12,294.[1] Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (10,675 or 91.8%) as their first language, French is the second most common (278 or 2.4%) and Albanian is the third (195 or 1.7%). There are 115 people who speak Italian and 8 people who speak Romansh.[4]

As of 2008, the gender distribution of the population was 49.7% male and 50.3% female. The population was made up of 5,218 Swiss men (42.5% of the population) and 879 (7.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 5,430 Swiss women (44.3%) and 742 (6.0%) non-Swiss women.[5] Of the population in the district 6,201 or about 53.3% were born in Leuk and lived there in 2000. There were 2,995 or 25.8% who were born in the same canton, while 1,012 or 8.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,071 or 9.2% were born outside of Switzerland.[4]

As of 2000, there were 4,795 people who were single and never married in the district. There were 5,769 married individuals, 716 widows or widowers and 351 individuals who are divorced.[4]

There were 1,296 households that consist of only one person and 382 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 4,625 households that answered this question, 28.0% were households made up of just one person and there were 67 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 1,147 married couples without children, 1,637 married couples with children There were 225 single parents with a child or children. There were 67 households that were made up of unrelated people and 186 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.[4][6]

The historical population is given in the following chart:[7]

Mergers and name changes

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 66.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (16.79%), the SP (12.46%) and the FDP (2.71%). In the federal election, a total of 6,389 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 73.4%.[9]

In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat election a total of 6,173 votes were cast, of which 304 or about 4.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 72.3%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%.[10] In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election election a total of 6,336 votes were cast, of which 280 or about 4.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 73.4%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.[11]

Religion

From the 2000 census, 10,068 or 86.6% were Roman Catholic, while 496 or 4.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 144 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.24% of the population), there were 6 individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 74 individuals (or about 0.64% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 345 (or about 2.97% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 10 individuals who were Buddhist, 1 person who was Hindu and 4 individuals who belonged to another church. 175 (or about 1.50% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 342 individuals (or about 2.94% of the population) did not answer the question.[4]

Education

In Leuk about 4,052 or (34.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 763 or (6.6%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule). Of the 763 who completed tertiary schooling, 68.3% were Swiss men, 20.2% were Swiss women, 6.2% were non-Swiss men and 5.4% were non-Swiss women.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter (German) accessed 10 December 2011
  2. ^ Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data (German) accessed 25 March 2010
  3. ^ Flags of the World.com accessed 25-August-2011
  4. ^ a b c d e f STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 (German) accessed 2 February 2011
  5. ^ Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls (German) (French) accessed 24 August 2011
  6. ^ Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen (German) accessed 28 January 2011
  7. ^ Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 (German) accessed 29 January 2011
  8. ^ Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (German) accessed 14 January 2010
  9. ^ Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton (German) accessed 28 May 2010
  10. ^ Staatsratswahlen vom 1. März 2009 (German) accessed 24 August 2011
  11. ^ Ständeratswahl 2007 (German) accessed 24 August 2011