Visp
Encyclopedia
Visp is the capital of the district of Visp 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

Visp has an area, , of 13.2 square kilometre. Of this area, 17.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 59.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 19.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 3.9% is unproductive land.

The proposed merger of the municipalities of Eggerberg
Eggerberg
Eggerberg is a municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-Geography:Eggerberg has an area, , of . Of this area, 15.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 56.4% is forested...

, Ausserberg
Ausserberg
Ausserberg is a municipality in the district of Raron in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-History:Ausserberg is first mentioned in 1378 as Leucrun. In 1401 it was mentioned as mons episcopi and in 1523 it was mons exterior.-Geography:...

, Bürchen
Bürchen
Bürchen is a municipality in the district of Raron in the German speaking part of the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-History:...

, Baltschieder
Baltschieder
Baltschieder is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-History:Baltschieder is first mentioned in 1224 as Ponczirrum. In 1286 it was mentioned as Balschyedro.-Geography:...

, Visp and Visperterminen
Visperterminen
Visperterminen is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-History:Visperterminen is first mentioned in the 11th Century as Termenum. In 1221 it was mentioned as Terminum.-Geography:...

 was rejected by the residents.

The two valleys are Mattertal
Mattertal
The Matter Valley is located in southwestern Switzerland, south of the Rhone valley in the canton of Valais. The village of Zermatt is the most important settlement of the valley, which is surrounded by many four-thousanders, including the Matterhorn.-Geography:Located in the Pennine Alps, the...

 and Saastal
Saastal
The Saastal or the Saas Valley is an alpine valley in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland. It is separated from the Mattertal valley by the Dom....

. It borders with Brig
Brig, Switzerland
Brig, officially Brig-Glis is a municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.The current municipality was formed in 1972 through the merger of Brig , Brigerbad and Glis.-History:...

-Glis.

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 pale Argent and Gules, two Lions rampant reguardant counterchanged.

Demographics

Visp has a population of . , 19.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 5.8%. It has changed at a rate of 4.5% due to migration and at a rate of 1.1% due to births and deaths.

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....

 (5,778 or 88.2%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...

 is the second most common (192 or 2.9%) and Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...

 is the third (139 or 2.1%). There are 107 people who speak 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...

, 111 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 3 people who speak Romansh.

, the population was 49.5% male and 50.5% female. The population was made up of 2,671 Swiss men (39.0% of the population) and 713 (10.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,808 Swiss women (41.0%) and 650 (9.5%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 2,556 or about 39.0% were born in Visp and lived there in 2000. There were 2,138 or 32.6% who were born in the same canton, while 588 or 9.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,033 or 15.8% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 23.4% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 61.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15%.

, there were 2,730 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 3,191 married individuals, 378 widows or widowers and 251 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 2,536 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 721 households that consist of only one person and 171 households with five or more people. , a total of 2,349 apartments (87.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 257 apartments (9.6%) were seasonally occupied and 66 apartments (2.5%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.4 new units per 1000 residents.

the average price to rent an average apartment in Visp was 923.95 Swiss franc
Swiss franc
The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...

s (CHF) per month (US$740, £420, €590 approx. exchange rate from 2003). The average rate for a one room apartment was 436.43 CHF (US$350, £200, €280), a two room apartment was about 610.65 CHF (US$490, £270, €390), a three room apartment was about 833.36 CHF (US$670, £380, €530) and a six or more room apartment cost an average of 936.90 CHF (US$750, £420, €600). The average apartment price in Visp was 82.8% of the national average of 1116 CHF. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.95%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Sights

The entire small city of Visp is 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 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...

 which received 62.91% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (16.23%), 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...

 (14.67%) and 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....

 (3.81%). In the federal election, a total of 2,732 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 60.1%.

In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat
Conseil d'Etat (Switzerland)
In Switzerland, Conseil d'Etat is the name of the council constituting the cantonal government of French-speaking cantons. It is not to be confused with the Conseil des États which is a chamber of the Swiss parliament....

 election a total of 2,235 votes were cast, of which 239 or about 10.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 49.3%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election
Swiss Council of States election, 2007
Elections were held to the Council of States of Switzerland in October and November 2007 as part of the 2007 federal election. All 46 members of the Council of States were elected from all cantons of Switzerland. The first round was held on 21 October...

 election a total of 2,731 votes were cast, of which 74 or about 2.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 60.6%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

The major employer in the town is the chemical company, LONZA AG, which employs about 2,550 people. Visp is the economic center of the region and draws workers from many surrounding towns and even from Italy. This leads to a unique situation where there are more jobs in Visp then the total population (7,700 positions for a population of about 6,700).

, Visp had an unemployment rate of 2.2%. , there were 63 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 4,288 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 93 businesses in this sector. 3,901 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 420 businesses in this sector. There were 3,178 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.4% 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 7,188. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 34, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 4,110 of which 3,401 or (82.7%) were in manufacturing and 608 (14.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 3,044. In the tertiary sector; 1,002 or 32.9% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 141 or 4.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 181 or 5.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 45 or 1.5% were in the information industry, 168 or 5.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 275 or 9.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 175 or 5.7% were in education and 788 or 25.9% were in health care.

, there were 5,635 workers who commuted into the municipality and 881 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 6.4 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 3.2% of the workforce coming into Visp are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 11.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 39.5% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 5,390 or 82.3% were Roman Catholic, while 306 or 4.7% 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 174 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 2.66% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who belonged 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 104 individuals (or about 1.59% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 250 (or about 3.82% 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 10 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...

 and 3 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...

. 88 (or about 1.34% 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 268 individuals (or about 4.09% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Visp about 2,401 or (36.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 715 or (10.9%) 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 715 who completed tertiary schooling, 64.9% were Swiss men, 18.0% were Swiss women, 11.3% were non-Swiss men and 5.7% were non-Swiss women.

During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 910 students in the Visp school system. The education system
Education in Switzerland
The education system in Switzerland is very diverse, because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system mainly to the cantons...

 in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

. During that school year, there 7 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 140 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Visp there were a total of 28 classes and 513 students in the primary school. The secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 397 lower secondary students who attended school in Visp. All the upper secondary students attended school in another municipality.

, there were 339 students in Visp who came from another municipality, while 250 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Visp is home to the Mediathek library. The library has 12,438 books or other media, and loaned out 36,395 items in the same year. It was open a total of 149 days with average of 12 hours per week during that year.

Transportation

Visp railway station
Visp railway station
Visp railway station is a junction station at Visp , in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland. It has a modern station building completed in 2007, and is served by two standard gauge lines and a metre gauge line....

 is a junction station, with a modern station building completed in 2007. It is served by two standard gauge lines (with services operated by SBB-CFF-FFS
SBB-CFF-FFS
Swiss Federal Railways and SFR are not in official use) is the national railway company of Switzerland headquartered in Bern. Formerly a government institution, it is since 1999 a special stock corporation with all shares held by the Swiss Confederation or the Swiss cantons...

) and a metre gauge line (with services operated by the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn).

The railway and bus stations in Visp and Brig
Brig, Switzerland
Brig, officially Brig-Glis is a municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.The current municipality was formed in 1972 through the merger of Brig , Brigerbad and Glis.-History:...

 are starting points for many outdoor activities, trips, and tours in the surrounding mountain resorts Zermatt
Zermatt
Zermatt is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a population of about 5,800 inhabitants....

 and Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland...

, lying at the foot of almost all the highest peaks in the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

, such as Matterhorn
Matterhorn
The Matterhorn , Monte Cervino or Mont Cervin , is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Its summit is 4,478 metres high, making it one of the highest peaks in the Alps. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points...

, Monte Rosa
Monte Rosa
The Monte Rosa Massif is a mountain massif located in the eastern part of the Pennine Alps. It is located between Switzerland and Italy...

, Dom and Weisshorn
Weisshorn
The Weisshorn is a mountain in the Pennine Alps, in Switzerland. With its summit, it is one of the major peaks in the Alps and overtops the nearby Matterhorn by some 30 metres. It was first climbed in 1861 from Randa by John Tyndall, accompanied by the guides J.J...

.

Weather

External links

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