Ardon () is a municipality in the district of Conthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

History

thumb|Historic aerial photograph by Werner Friedli from 1949

Ardon is first mentioned at the end of the 11th Century as Ardunum. In 1179 it was mentioned as Ardun.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 25.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.3% is used for growing crops, while 13.8% is used for orchards or vine crops and 4.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 8.6% is unproductive vegetation and 32.2% is too rocky for vegetation.

Demographics

thumb|upright|Ardon village

Ardon has a population () of . , 32.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 10.3%. It has changed at a rate of 11.7% due to migration and at a rate of 3.8% due to births and deaths.

Most of the population () speaks French (1,859 or 81.0%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (150 or 6.5%) and German is the third (59 or 2.6%). There are 41 people who speak Italian. Of the population in the municipality 839 or about 36.6% were born in Ardon and lived there in 2000. There were 554 or 24.1% who were born in the same canton, while 186 or 8.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 564 or 24.6% were born outside of Switzerland.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.63 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.63 per room. About 59.7% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage or a rent-to-own agreement). , there were 847 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.

, a total of 764 apartments (80.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 150 apartments (15.9%) were seasonally occupied and 30 apartments (3.2%) were empty.

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Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 40.59% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (32.99%), the SP (10.72%) and the SVP (10.3%). In the federal election, a total of 893 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 64.1%.

In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 725 votes were cast, of which 50 or about 6.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 52.1%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 864 votes were cast, of which 70 or about 8.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 63.0%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Ardon had an unemployment rate of 6.9%. , there were 99 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 40 businesses involved in this sector. 136 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 23 businesses in this sector. 320 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 66 businesses in this sector.

, there were 306 workers who commuted into the municipality and 743 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 12.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 68.7% used a private car.

References

  • Municipal website