Visp District


The district of Visp is a district in the Canton of Valais in southern Switzerland. It has a population of .

Municipalities

It consists of the following municipalities:
MunicipalityPopulation
Area
km2
Baltschieder31.44
Eisten38.05
Embd13.39
Grächen14.32
Lalden1.28
Randa54.51
Saas-Almagell110.22
Saas-Balen30.18
Saas-Fee40.6
Saas-Grund24.55
St. Niklaus89.23
Stalden10.43
Staldenried14.32
Täsch58.72
Törbel17.59
Visp13.17
Visperterminen51.62
Zeneggen7.49
Zermatt242.69
Total863.8

Coat of arms

The blazon of the district coat of arms is ''Per pale Argent and Gules, two Lions rampant respectant counterchanged.''

Demographics

Visp has a population of. Most of the population speaks German as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common and Italian is the third. There are 398 people who speak French and 12 people who speak Romansh.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 10,909 Swiss men and 2,881 non-Swiss men. There were 11,353 Swiss women and 2,528 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the district 14,307 or about 53.3% were born in Visp and lived there in 2000. There were 5,434 or 20.3% who were born in the same canton, while 2,212 or 8.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 4,191 or 15.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
, there were 11,574 people who were single and never married in the district. There were 13,177 married individuals, 1,370 widows or widowers and 698 individuals who are divorced.
There were 2,999 households that consist of only one person and 834 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 10,682 households that answered this question, 28.1% were households made up of just one person and there were 135 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 2,616 married couples without children, 3,826 married couples with children There were 478 single parents with a child or children. There were 193 households that were made up of unrelated people and 435 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
The historical population is given in the following chart:

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id:darkgrey value:gray
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PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
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bar:1850 from:start till:5424 text:"5,424"
bar:1860 from:start till:6230 text:"6,230"
bar:1870 from:start till:6570 text:"6,570"
bar:1880 from:start till:6820 text:"6,820"
bar:1888 from:start till:6975 text:"6,975"
bar:1900 from:start till:7882 text:"7,882"
bar:1910 from:start till:9332 text:"9,332"
bar:1920 from:start till:9676 text:"9,676"
bar:1930 from:start till:11255 text:"11,255"
bar:1941 from:start till:12745 text:"12,745"
bar:1950 from:start till:14212 text:"14,212"
bar:1960 from:start till:18021 text:"18,021"
bar:1970 from:start till:20690 text:"20,690"
bar:1980 from:start till:22024 text:"22,024"
bar:1990 from:start till:23523 text:"23,523"
bar:2000 from:start till:26819 text:"26,819"

Mergers and name changes

On 1 October 1972, Eyholz merged into the municipality of Visp. On 1 January 2007 the municipality of Saas Almagell changed its name to Saas-Almagell, the municipality of Saas Balen changed its name to Saas-Balen and the municipality of Saas Fee changed its name to Saas-Fee.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 67.33% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP, the SP and the FDP. In the federal election, a total of 10,367 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 56.8%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 10,034 votes were cast, of which 702 or about 7.0% 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 10,281 votes were cast, of which 350 or about 3.4% were invalid. The voter participation was 56.9%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Religion

From the, 22,775 or 84.9% were Roman Catholic, while 1,156 or 4.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 495 members of an Orthodox church, there were 7 individuals who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 297 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 individuals who were Jewish, and 613 who were Islamic. There were 24 individuals who were Buddhist, 3 individuals who were Hindu and 9 individuals who belonged to another church. 433 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 1,136 individuals did not answer the question.

Weather

Visp town has an average of 78.9 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is November during which time Visp receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 7.2 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is August, with an average of 7.6, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is September with an average of of precipitation over 5.3 days.

Education

In Visp about 9,778 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,962 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 1,962 who completed tertiary schooling, 65.1% were Swiss men, 18.1% were Swiss women, 9.8% were non-Swiss men and 6.9% were non-Swiss women.