Champéry (; ) is a municipality in the district of Monthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.
History
Champéry is first mentioned in 1286 as Champery
The Hotel Dent-du-Midi opened in 1857. In 1969, Champéry became one of the founding villages of the Portes du Soleil ski area and resort.
Geography
Champéry has an area, , of . Of this area, 32.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 33.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and 30.3% is unproductive land.
The municipality is located in the Monthey district, in the Val-d'Illiez, on the French border. It consists of the linear village of Champéry, which was part of the municipality of Val-d'Illiez until 1839 when it became independent.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Quartered Argent issuant from three Mounts Vert as many Pine Trees of the same trunked proper and Azure statant on ground Or a man proper clad of the same troused Argent holding a bag of the same sowing seeds Or from it.
Demographics
Champéry has a population () of . , 23.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 12.8%. It has changed at a rate of 11.7% due to migration and at a rate of 0% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (996 or 90.0%) as their first language, German is the second most common (26 or 2.3%) and English is the third (24 or 2.2%). There are 9 people who speak Italian.
, the population was 51.9% male and 48.1% female. The population was made up of 504 Swiss men (39.5% of the population) and 158 (12.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 473 Swiss women (37.1%) and 140 (11.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 509 or about 46.0% were born in Champéry and lived there in 2000. There were 168 or 15.2% who were born in the same canton, while 192 or 17.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 201 or 18.2% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.6%.
, there were 436 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 551 married individuals, 62 widows or widowers and 58 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 458 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 160 households that consist of only one person and 31 households with five or more people. , a total of 433 apartments (28.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,008 apartments (65.8%) were seasonally occupied and 91 apartments (5.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 23.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.68%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 35.76% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (25.7%), the SVP (20.71%) and the SP (9.8%). In the federal election, a total of 464 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 54.0%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 393 votes were cast, of which 26 or about 6.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 49.9%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 446 votes were cast, of which 23 or about 5.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 55.7%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Champéry had an unemployment rate of 2.8%. , there were 36 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 43 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 14 businesses in this sector. 400 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 69 businesses in this sector. There were 525 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.0% of the workforce.