Leysin
Encyclopedia
Leysin 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...

 of 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 Vaud
Vaud
Vaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,...

 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....

, located in the district of Aigle
Aigle (district)
Aigle District is a district of the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.-Geography:Aigle has an area, , of . Of this area, or 34.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 41.3% is forested...

.

History

Leysin is first mentioned around 1231-32 as Leissins. In 1352 it was mentioned as Leisins.

Geography

Leysin has an area, , of 18.57 square kilometres (7.2 sq mi). Of this area, 6.48 km² (2.5 sq mi) or 34.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.91 km² (2.7 sq mi) or 37.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.43 km² (0.552126086787325 sq mi) or 7.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.04 km² (9.9 acre) or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and 3.67 km² (1.4 sq mi) or 19.8% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, 33.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for growing crops and 10.0% is pastures and 24.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 12.9% is unproductive vegetation and 6.9% is too rocky for vegetation.

The municipality is located in the Aigle district, on the right side of the Grande-Eau at the foot of the Tour d'Aï and the Tour de Mayen. The main village is located at an elevation of 1260 m (4,133.9 ft). It consists of the village of Leysin and the hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of Veyges, Feydey, Aï and Mayen.

It is a sunny alpine resort village at the eastern end of Lake Geneva in proximity to Montreux
Montreux
Montreux is a municipality in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.It is located on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps and has a population, , of and nearly 90,000 in the agglomeration.- History :...

, Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

 and Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

. In prior years, Leysin was known for its sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

s for tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

: now, however, it is a destination for year-round mountain sports and recreation.

Located in the Bernese
Bernese Alps
The Bernese Alps are a group of mountain ranges in the western part of the Alps, in Switzerland. Although the name suggests that they are located in the Bernese Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Valais, Lucerne, Obwalden, Fribourg and...

 Alps
Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....

, Leysin enjoys spectacular views across the Rhône Valley towards the (Dents du Midi
Dents du Midi
The Dents du Midi is a mountain chain situated in the Chablais Alps in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland. It is composed of seven distinct summits and reaches a height of 3257 metres...

). The municipality can be accessed by road or the Aigle - Leysin
Aigle - Leysin
The Aigle–Leysin Railway, abbreviated AL, French Chemins de fer Aigle–Leysin, was the earliest of the narrow gauge line in the Chablais area of south west Switzerland...

 train (c. 30 minutes). Trains depart hourly. Leysin offers four stops (stations).

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 Per fess Sable and Or, overall issuant from Hills in base a Pinetree all Vert.

Demographics

Leysin has a population of . , 59.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 37.5%. It has changed at a rate of 39.4% due to migration and at a rate of 2.6% 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...

 (1,683 or 56.1%), with English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 being second most common (356 or 11.9%) and 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....

 being third (104 or 3.5%). There are 43 people who speak 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...

 and 1 person who speaks Romansh.

Of the population in the municipality 539 or about 18.0% were born in Leysin and lived there in 2000. There were 424 or 14.1% who were born in the same canton, while 361 or 12.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,525 or 50.9% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 14 live births to Swiss citizens and 11 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 17 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 3 while the foreign population increased by 10. There were 10 Swiss men and 5 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 95 non-Swiss men and 140 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 17 and the non-Swiss population increased by 240 people. This represents a population growth rate of 7.4%.

The age distribution, , in Leysin is; 271 children or 7.2% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 961 teenagers or 25.6% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 843 people or 22.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 391 people or 10.4% are between 30 and 39, 426 people or 11.3% are between 40 and 49, and 341 people or 9.1% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 305 people or 8.1% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 148 people or 3.9% are between 70 and 79,there are 61 people or 1.6% who are 80 and 89, and there are 12 people or 0.3% who are 90 and older.

, there were 1,699 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 989 married individuals, 126 widows or widowers and 184 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.58 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.61 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 37.7% 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 937 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.1 persons per household. There were 409 households that consist of only one person and 30 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,004 households that answered this question, 40.7% were households made up of just one person and there were 3 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 223 married couples without children, 235 married couples with children There were 56 single parents with a child or children. There were 11 households that were made up of unrelated people and 67 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 312 single family homes (or 43.3% of the total) out of a total of 720 inhabited buildings. There were 235 multi-family buildings (32.6%), along with 68 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (9.4%) and 105 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (14.6%). Of the single family homes 103 were built before 1919, while 19 were built between 1990 and 2000. The most multi-family homes (76) were built before 1919 and the next most (43) were built between 1961 and 1970. There was 1 multi-family house built between 1996 and 2000.

there were 2,345 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 711. There were 344 single room apartments and 289 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 885 apartments (37.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,095 apartments (46.7%) were seasonally occupied and 365 apartments (15.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.51%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Sights

The entire village of Leysin and hamlet of Veyges are designated as 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 21.19% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...

 (20.41%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (19.92%) and the Green Party
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (15.84%). In the federal election, a total of 477 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 40.7%.

Economy

, Leysin had an unemployment rate of 4.8%. , there were 39 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 137 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 26 businesses in this sector. 1,074 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 116 businesses in this sector. There were 1,160 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.7% 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 1,080. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 30, of which 21 were in agriculture and 8 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 128 of which 36 or (28.1%) were in manufacturing and 85 (66.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 922. In the tertiary sector; 76 or 8.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 54 or 5.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 167 or 18.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, 13 or 1.4% were the insurance or financial industry, 7 or 0.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 351 or 38.1% were in education and 174 or 18.9% were in health care.

, there were 206 workers who commuted into the municipality and 234 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 10.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 45.3% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 769 or 25.7% were Roman Catholic, while 803 or 26.8% 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 110 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 3.67% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...

, and there were 50 individuals (or about 1.67% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 individuals (or about 0.10% of the population) who were Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 63 (or about 2.10% of the population) who were 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 84 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, 23 individuals who were Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and 6 individuals who belonged to another church. 612 (or about 20.41% 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 474 individuals (or about 15.81% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Leysin about 658 or (21.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 365 or (12.2%) 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 365 who completed tertiary schooling, 27.9% were Swiss men, 18.4% were Swiss women, 28.2% were non-Swiss men and 25.5% were non-Swiss women.

In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 317 students in the Leysin school district. In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 205 children of which 96 children (46.8%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 175 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 139 students in those schools. There were also 3 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.

, there were 39 students in Leysin who came from another municipality, while 98 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Leysin is also the home to a number of international schools: Leysin American School
Leysin American School
Leysin American School is a co-educational independent boarding school focusing on university preparation for grades 8-12 . It is located in the alpine resort village of Leysin, Vaud, Switzerland, 90 minutes east of Geneva...

, Kumon Leysin Academy of Switzerland
Kumon Leysin Academy of Switzerland
Kumon Leysin Academy of Switzerland is a private high school in Leysin, Switzerland, founded by the Kumon Gakuen Educational Foundation in 1990. The school focuses on Japanese and Western university preparation for grades 10-12...

, Schiller International university
Schiller International University
Schiller International University is a private American university with its main campus and administrative headquarters in Largo, Florida. It has campuses on two continents in five countries, each offering its own unique experiences to students: Largo; Paris, France; Madrid, Spain; Heidelberg,...

 American College of Switzerland
American College of Switzerland
The American College of Switzerland is a liberal arts college in Leysin, Switzerland in the canton of Vaud.The campus is housed in the modernized Victorian style Grand Hôtel de Leysin, built in 1892. A private train station on campus connects to all main lines and cities in Switzerland...

, Swiss Hotel Management School
Swiss Hotel Management School
The Swiss Hotel Management School is Switzerland's largest English-speaking hotel management school. SHMS provides an international programme through a mixture of courses and practical internships. The school offers various programs other than the basic Bachelor's Degree in International...

, CP Language Institute, Voxlingua Language School.

Sport

Leysin hosted the FIS
International Ski Federation
The International Ski Federation, known by its name in French, Fédération Internationale de Ski is the main international organisation for ski sports...

 Snowboard World Cup 2008.

Leysin has hosted 3 world cup events in recent years: Boardercross, Speedskiing and downhill mountain-biking.
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