Grimisuat

• Name — Grimisuat • Type — municipality • Canton — Valais • Iso Code — CH-VS • District — Sion • Postal Code — 1971 • Municipality Code — 6263 • Area — 4.4 • Elevation — 882 • Population Total — 2325 • Population As Of — December 2002 • Website — www.grimisuat.ch • Mayor — Géraldine Marchand-Balet • Surrounded By — Arbaz, Ayent, Savièse, Sion

Grimisuat is first mentioned around 1001–1100 as Grimisoch. The municipality was formerly known by its unknown name Grimslen, however, that name is no longer used.

Grimisuat has an area, As of 2009, of 4.4 km2. Of this area, 2.1 km2 or 47.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.99 km2 or 22.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.23 km2 or 27.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.04 km2 or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and 0.09 km2 or 2.0% is unproductive land. Of the built-up area, housing and buildings made up 19.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.2%. While parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 13.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 8.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.9% is used for growing crops and 18.0% is pastures, while 28.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 0.7% is in rivers and streams. The municipality is located in the Sion district, on the right bank of the Rhone river. It consists of the village of Grimisuat and the hamlets of Comera and Les Combes.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a Fleur-de-lys Argent between in chief two Mullets of Six Or.

Grimisuat has a population (As of) of. As of 2008, 11.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010), the population has changed at a rate of 23.6%. It has changed at 13.9% due to migration and at 7.7% due to births and deaths. Most of the population (As of 2000) speaks French (2,128 or 91.3%) as their first language, German is the second most common (95 or 4.1%) and Portuguese is the third (42 or 1.8%). There are 25 people who speak Italian. As of 2008, the population was 51.5% male and 48.5% female. The population was made up of 1,258 Swiss men (45.1% of the population) and 177 (6.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,176 Swiss women (42.2%) and 176 (6.3%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 946, or about 40.6%, were born in Grimisuat and lived there in 2000. There were 781, or 33.5%, who were born in the same canton, while 284, or 12.2%, were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 288, or 12.4%, were born outside of Switzerland. As of 2000, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.3%. As of 2000, there were 949 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,189 married individuals, 110 widows or widowers and 83 individuals who are divorced. As of 2000, there were 834 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 185 households that consisted of only one person and 78 households with five or more people. As of 2000, a total of 819 apartments (85.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 96 apartments (10.1%) were seasonally occupied and 38 apartments (4.0%) were empty. As of 2009, the construction rate of new housing units was 17.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, As of 2010, was 0.17%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:2400 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:500 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:100 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:437 text:"437" bar:1860 from:start till:498 text:"498" bar:1870 from:start till:512 text:"512" bar:1880 from:start till:575 text:"575" bar:1888 from:start till:591 text:"591" bar:1900 from:start till:608 text:"608" bar:1910 from:start till:693 text:"693" bar:1920 from:start till:693 text:"693" bar:1930 from:start till:710 text:"710" bar:1941 from:start till:783 text:"783" bar:1950 from:start till:926 text:"926" bar:1960 from:start till:1006 text:"1,006" bar:1970 from:start till:1286 text:"1,286" bar:1980 from:start till:1691 text:"1,691" bar:1990 from:start till:2025 text:"2,025" bar:2000 from:start till:2331 text:"2,331"

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 51.71% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (14.87%), the FDP (11.11%) and the SVP (11%). In the federal election, a total of 1,331 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 72.8%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 1,115 votes were cast, of which 97, or about 8.7%, were invalid. The voter participation was 61.0%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 1,308 votes were cast, of which 97, or about 7.4%, were invalid. The voter participation was 72.5%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

As of 2010 In 2010, Grimisuat had an unemployment rate of 4.6%. As of 2008, there were 114 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 52 businesses involved in this sector. 80 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 27 businesses in this sector. 375 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 56 businesses in this sector. There were 1,076 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.8% of the workforce. As of 2008 the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 413. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 65, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 69 of which 20 or (29.0%) were in manufacturing and 49, or 71.0%, were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 279. In the tertiary sector, 59, or 21.1%, were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 14 or 5.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 30 or 10.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 4 or 1.4% were in the insurance or financial industry, 21 or 7.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 31 or 11.1% were in education and 87 or 31.2% were in health care. As of 2000, there were 213 workers who commuted into the municipality and 807 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 78.5% used a private car.

From the As of 2000, 1,985 or 85.2% were Roman Catholic, while 138 or 5.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 3 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.13% of the population), there were 4 individuals (or about 0.17% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 26 individuals (or about 1.12% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 28 (or about 1.20% of the population) who were Islamic. 86 (or about 3.69% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 73 individuals (or about 3.13% of the population) did not answer the question.

In Grimisuat about 782, or (33.5%), of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 330 or (14.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 330 who completed tertiary schooling, 64.8% were Swiss men, 24.2% were Swiss women, 5.2% were non-Swiss men and 5.8% were non-Swiss women. As of 2000, there were 82 students in Grimisuat who came from another municipality, while 203 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Grimisuat is home to the Bibliothèque/Médiathèque Communale library. The library has (As of 2008) 11,763 books or other media and loaned out 28,140 items in the same year. It was open a total of 182 days with an average of 12 hours per week during that year.