Lens () is a municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.
History
Lens is first mentioned in 1177 as de Lenz.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 11.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.0%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.8%. Out of the forested land, 33.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.4% is used for growing crops and 11.6% is pastures, while 9.1% is used for orchards or vine crops and 15.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.
Demographics
thumb|[[Chelin, Switzerland|Chelin village in Lens]]
thumb|Le Louche lake in Lens
Lens has a population () of . , 28.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 9.8%. It has changed at a rate of 11.9% due to migration and at a rate of 0% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (2,876 or 85.7%) as their first language, German is the second most common (128 or 3.8%) and Italian is the third (110 or 3.3%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 1,481 or about 44.1% were born in Lens and lived there in 2000. There were 624 or 18.6% who were born in the same canton, while 290 or 8.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 861 or 25.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
, there were 1,406 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 8.5 new units per 1000 residents.
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Sights
The entire village of Lens is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 36.06% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (24.32%), the SVP (18.75%) and the SP (12.34%). In the federal election, a total of 1,416 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 64.2%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 1,287 votes were cast, of which 104 or about 8.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 59.2%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 1,391 votes were cast, of which 99 or about 7.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 64.1%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Lens had an unemployment rate of 3.7%. , there were 181 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 54 businesses involved in this sector. 184 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 29 businesses in this sector. 974 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 149 businesses in this sector.
, there were 401 workers who commuted into the municipality and 952 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, 7.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 68.9% used a private car.