Leuk (; ) is a municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013, the former municipality of Erschmatt merged into the municipality of Leuk.
thumb|Historic aerial photograph by Werner Friedli from 1949
Since it controls access to the Gemmi Pass, it had some importance from the time of Roman Raetia. The Leukerbad thermal baths are just north of Leuk, towards the pass. It is the capital of the Leuk district of the Valais.
Leuk is home to one of the known installations of Onyx, the Swiss interception system for signals intelligence gathering.
History
Leuk is first mentioned in 515 as villa de Leuca.
Demographics
thumb|La Souste/Susten
thumb|upright|Houses in Leuk
Leuk has a population () of . , 11.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 4.7%. It has changed at a rate of 3.3% due to migration and at a rate of 1.1% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks German (3,118 or 92.8%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (79 or 2.4%) and French is the third (52 or 1.5%). There are 15 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality 1,617 or about 48.1% were born in Leuk and lived there in 2000. There were 985 or 29.3% who were born in the same canton, while 319 or 9.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 295 or 8.8% were born outside of Switzerland.
, there were 1,209 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household.
, a total of 1,126 apartments (79.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 241 apartments (17.0%) were seasonally occupied and 50 apartments (3.5%) were empty.
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bar:1880 from:start till:1329 text:"1,329"
bar:1888 from:start till:1552 text:"1,552"
bar:1900 from:start till:1592 text:"1,592"
bar:1910 from:start till:1649 text:"1,649"
bar:1920 from:start till:1885 text:"1,885"
bar:1930 from:start till:1966 text:"1,966"
bar:1941 from:start till:2242 text:"2,242"
bar:1950 from:start till:2336 text:"2,336"
bar:1960 from:start till:2546 text:"2,546"
bar:1970 from:start till:2796 text:"2,796"
bar:1980 from:start till:2983 text:"2,983"
bar:1990 from:start till:3253 text:"3,253"
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Heritage sites of national significance
The Dalaturm, the Church of St. Stephan, the Rathaus (Town council house), the Ringacker Chapel of Mariä Empfängnis with the Hermitage and Zen-Ruffinen Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire small town of Leuk and village of Erschmatt are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
<gallery>
File:Picswiss VS-69-18.jpg | Church of St. Stephan
File:Picswiss VS-69-05.jpg|Rathaus (Town council house)
File:Picswiss VS-69-07.jpg | Ringacker Chapel of Mariä Empfängnis with Hermitage
File:VonWerraSitz.JPG| Zen-Ruffinen Castle
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Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 71.78% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (13.34%), the SVP (11.2%) and the FDP (1.76%). In the federal election, a total of 1,856 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 75.9%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 1,684 votes were cast, of which 117 or about 6.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 70.5%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 1,849 votes were cast, of which 73 or about 3.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 76.4%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Leuk had an unemployment rate of 2.2%. , there were 148 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 56 businesses involved in this sector. 218 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 44 businesses in this sector. 850 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 133 businesses in this sector.
, there were 398 workers who commuted into the municipality and 877 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 20.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.8% used a private car. During that school year, there 4 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 63 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Leuk there were a total of 13 classes and 258 students in the primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 180 lower secondary students who attended school in Leuk. All the upper secondary students attended school in another municipality.
, there were 128 students in Leuk who came from another municipality, while 124 residents attended schools outside the municipality.