Bourg-Saint-Pierre
Encyclopedia
Bourg-Saint-Pierre is a municipality
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the district of Entremont in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

Geography

Bourg-Saint-Pierre has an area, , of 90.2 square kilometre. Of this area, 29.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and 63.5% is unproductive land.

The municipality is located on the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 border. It consists of the village of Bourg-Saint-Pierre and the Hospice du Grand Saint-Bernard in the Great St Bernard Pass.

The village of Bourg-Saint-Pierre lies at the foot of the Grand Combin
Grand Combin
The Grand Combin is a mountain in the western Pennine Alps in Switzerland. With its high summit it is one of the highest peaks in the Alps and the second most prominent of its range...

.

Coat of arms

The blazon
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...

 of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is Azure, two Keys Or in saltire.

Demographics

Bourg-Saint-Pierre has a population of . , 6.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -10.9%. It has changed at a rate of -12.9% due to migration and at a rate of 3.5% due to births and deaths.

Most of the population speaks French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 (195 or 92.0%) as their first language, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 is the second most common (6 or 2.8%) and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 is the third (6 or 2.8%). There are 2 people who speak German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

.

Of the population in the municipality 101 or about 47.6% were born in Bourg-Saint-Pierre and lived there in 2000. There were 52 or 24.5% who were born in the same canton, while 21 or 9.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 36 or 17.0% were born outside of Switzerland.

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.6%.

, there were 86 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 112 married individuals, 13 widows or widowers and 1 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.63 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.63 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 85.5% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...

 or a rent-to-own agreement).

, there were 77 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 17 households that consist of only one person and 8 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 80 households that answered this question, 21.3% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 30 married couples without children, 25 married couples with children There were 4 single parents with a child or children. There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 3 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 81 single family homes (or 57.9% of the total) out of a total of 140 inhabited buildings. There were 28 multi-family buildings (20.0%), along with 7 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (5.0%) and 24 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (17.1%).

, a total of 69 apartments (35.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 112 apartments (58.3%) were seasonally occupied and 11 apartments (5.7%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 3.61%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

The Church of St-Pierre with its romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 tower and the Hospice with its outbuildings are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance
Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...

. The entire city of Bourg-Saint-Pierre and the Grand-Saint-Bernard area are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...

.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...

 the most popular party was the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....

 which received 43.42% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...

 (27.35%), the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 (15.05%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (11.14%). In the federal election, a total of 109 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 was 64.9%.

Economy

, Bourg-Saint-Pierre had an unemployment rate of 1.7%. , there were 3 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 2 businesses involved in this sector. No one was employed in the secondary sector. 130 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 19 businesses in this sector. There were 93 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.0% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...

 jobs was 120. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 2, all of which were in agriculture. There were no jobs in the secondary sector. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 118. In the tertiary sector; 4 or 3.4% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 46 or 39.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 54 or 45.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, .

, there were 41 workers who commuted into the municipality and 17 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.4 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 2.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.6% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 181 or 85.4% were Roman Catholic, while 9 or 4.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
Swiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 3 members of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...

 (or about 1.42% of the population). There was 1 individual who was Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. There were 1 individual who belonged to another church. 13 (or about 6.13% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....

 or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, and 4 individuals (or about 1.89% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Bourg-Saint-Pierre about 68 or (32.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 14 or (6.6%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

). Of the 14 who completed tertiary schooling, 57.1% were Swiss men, 14.3% were Swiss women.

, there were 2 students in Bourg-Saint-Pierre who came from another municipality, while 5 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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