Grengiols is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the district of
Raron in the
canton of
Valais
Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...
in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.
History
Grengiols is first mentioned in 1052 as ''Graneirolis''. In 1228 it was mentioned as ''Griniruel'' and in 1297 as ''Graniols''. The name probably comes from the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
word ''graneirolas'' meaning a small granary.
[
]
Geography
Grengiols has an area, , of . Of this area, 21.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 25.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and 52.4% is unproductive land.[
The municipality is located in the Östlich Raron district, on the southern slopes of the Rhone valley near the entrance to the Goms valley. It consists of the village of Grengiols with scattered settlements including; Hockmatte, Ze Hyschere, Bächerhyschere and others, on the road leading into the Goms valley and then over the Albrun Pass.
]
Coat of arms
The 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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
is ''Gules, two Keys Or in saltire in chief a papal Crown of the same.''
Demographics
Grengiols has a population () of . , 2.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Superweb database – Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008]
. Retrieved 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of −3.6%. It has changed at a rate of −3.2% due to migration and at a rate of −2.4% due to births and deaths.
. Retrieved 4 October 2011German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
(481 or 98.0%) as their first language, French is the second most common (4 or 0.8%) and English is the third (2 or 0.4%).[
, the population was made up of 463 Swiss citizens and 11 non-citizen residents (2.32% of the population).][
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 51.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20%.][
, there were 228 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 224 married individuals, 26 widows or widowers and 13 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000]
. Retrieved 2 February 2011
, there were 114 private households in the municipality, and an average of 3.5 persons per household.[ There were 14 households that consist of only one person and 29 households with five or more people. , a total of 113 apartments (36.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 164 apartments (53.2%) were seasonally occupied and 31 apartments (10.1%) were empty.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen]
. Retrieved 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.1 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.9%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Sights
The entire village of Grengiols is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) 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
The types are based on t ...
.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 55.57% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (19.97%), the FDP (13.05%) and the SP (10.2%). In the federal election, a total of 176 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
was 48.1%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 194 votes were cast, of which 13 or about 6.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 54.3%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 175 votes were cast, of which 11 or about 6.3% were invalid. The voter participation was 47.8%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Grengiols had an unemployment rate of 1.1%. , there were 46 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 22 businesses involved in this sector. 19 people were employed in the secondary sector
In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...
and there were 8 businesses in this sector. 63 people were employed in the tertiary sector
The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...
, with 14 businesses in this sector.[ There were 209 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 35.4% of the workforce.
the total number of ]full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...
jobs was 92. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 21, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 17 of which 11 or (64.7%) were in manufacturing and 6 (35.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 54. In the tertiary sector; 5 or 9.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in the movement and storage of goods, 7 or 13.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 3.7% were the insurance or financial industry, 28 or 51.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 7.4% were in education.
, there were 33 workers who commuted into the municipality and 117 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb]
. Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 11.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 60.8% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 449 or 91.4% were Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 16 or 3.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 7 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.43% of the population). 3 (or about 0.61% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
or atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and 16 individuals (or about 3.26% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Grengiols about 141 or (28.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 25 or (5.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
or a ''Fachhochschule
A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...
''). Of the 25 who completed tertiary schooling, 80.0% were Swiss men, 8.0% were Swiss women.[
During the 2010–2011 school year there were a total of 45 students in the Grengiols school system. The ]education system
The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining education within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or early childhood education ...
in the Canton of Valais allows young children to attend one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
. During that school year, there was one kindergarten class (KG1 or KG2) and 8 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
. In Grengiols there were a total of 4 classes and 45 students in the primary school. The secondary school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower and upper secondary students from Grengiols attend their school in a neighboring municipality.Obligatorische Schulzeit
. Retrieved 24 August 2011
, there were 30 students from Grengiols who attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
Official website
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Valais