Miège

Miège (French pronunciation: [mjɛʒ] ⓘ) is a former municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

[4] Miège had an area, as of 2009[update], of 2.5 square kilometers (0.97 sq mi).

[5] The former municipality is located in the Sierre district, in the vineyards on the right bank of the Rhone.

It is west of the Raspille river, which is the border with the German speaking Upper Valais.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, issuant from Coupeaux Vert a Garb Or between two vines of the second fructed of the third, in chief a Sun in Splendour of the last.

[8] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks French (782 or 85.7%) as their first language, German is the second most common (80 or 8.8%) and Serbo-Croatian is the third (14 or 1.5%).

[8] The historical population is given in the following chart:[4][12] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 37.08% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 457 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 60.1%.

[14] In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 451 votes were cast, of which 26 or about 5.8% were invalid.

[8] There were 432 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.6% of the workforce.

In the tertiary sector; 14 or 30.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 4.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 4 or 8.7% were the insurance or financial industry, 4 or 8.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 14 or 30.4% were in education and 1 was in health care.

[8] From the 2000 census[update], 737 or 80.7% were Roman Catholic, while 45 or 4.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

Aerial view (1949)