Mellikon
Encyclopedia
Mellikon 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 Zurzach
Zurzach (district)
Zurzach District is a district in the Swiss Canton of Aargau with the administrative capital of Zurzach. It covers the Studenlands and is located in the northeastern part of the canton. The district capital is Bad Zurzach. The main valleys are the Surb and the Aare. It has a population of ...

 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 Aargau
Aargau
Aargau is one of the more northerly cantons of Switzerland. It comprises the lower course of the river Aare, which is why the canton is called Aar-gau .-History:...

 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....

.

History

Mellikon is first mentioned in 1113 as Meliken. The village developed from a farm owned by Zurzach Abbey, but it was only recognized by the Abbey as a municipality in 1661. During the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

, the majority of the population in Mellikon joined the new religion. The Reformed
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...

 members belonged to the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 of Zurzach, while the Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 members belonged to the Catholic parish of Zurzach. In 1645 Jost von Roll from Uri
Canton of Uri
Uri is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss River between Lake Lucerne and the St. Gotthard Pass. German is the primary language spoken in Uri...

 built a mansion and Catholic chapel in Mellikon. It still serves as a place of worship and cemetery for the von Roll family. The limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 quarry in the village was used into the 1980s by the Schweiz Sodafabrik and then in the 1990s by the Mellikon AG company. Starting in 1990, an industrial and business park was built west of the village. In 1995, the village was tied into the Swiss Federal Railways Rhine Valley line. The majority of the population is employed outside the village.

Geography

Mellikon has an area, , of 2.71 square kilometres (1 sq mi). Of this area, 0.74 km² (0.285715597358476 sq mi) or 27.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.36 km² (0.525098935685848 sq mi) or 50.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.48 km² (0.185329036124417 sq mi) or 17.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.11 km² (27.2 acre) or 4.1% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.0% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 8.5% of the area Out of the forested land, 49.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 17.7% is used for growing crops and 8.9% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Zurzach district, in a small valley east of the Nurren river in the Rhine valley. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Mellikon.

Demographics

Mellikon has a population of , 44.4% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -6.7%. Most of the population speaks 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....

(93.0%), with 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...

 being second most common ( 3.1%) and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 being third ( 1.2%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 49.4% male and 50.6% female. The population was made up of 108 Swiss men (43.7% of the population), and 14 (5.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 112 Swiss women (45.3%), and 13 (5.3%) non-Swiss women. In there were 2 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 1 Swiss man who immigrated from another country back to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 was a decrease of 6 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 4 people. This represents a population growth rate of -0.8%.

The age distribution, , in Mellikon is; 22 children or 8.8% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 39 teenagers or 15.5% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 21 people or 8.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 18 people or 7.2% are between 30 and 39, 46 people or 18.3% are between 40 and 49, and 49 people or 19.5% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 28 people or 11.2% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 12 people or 4.8% are between 70 and 79, there are 15 people or 6.0% who are between 80 and 89,and there is 1 person who is between 90 and older.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.54 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.57 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 71.1% 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 3 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 26 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 61 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. , there were 96 private households (homes and apartments) in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. there were 65 single family homes (or 67.0% of the total) out of a total of 97 homes and apartments. There were a total of 5 empty apartments for a 5.2% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents.

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 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...

 which received 32.55% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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:...

 (19.44%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (16.88%) and 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...

 (16.5%). In the federal election, a total of 94 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 50.8%.

The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
1850 199
1900 143
1950 220
1980 197
1990 240
2000 257

Economy

, Mellikon had an unemployment rate of 2.08%. , there were 12 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 105 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 6 businesses in this sector. 34 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 10 businesses in this sector.

there were 113 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 79 or about 69.9% of the residents worked outside Mellikon while 80 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 114 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality. Of the working population, 19% used public transportation to get to work, and 45.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 121 or 47.1% were Roman Catholic, while 86 or 33.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

Education

In Mellikon about 75.6% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or 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 school age population in the municipality.
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