Vernayaz

Vernayaz is a municipality in the district of Saint-Maurice, in the canton of Valais, Switzerland.

[3] Vernayaz has an area, as of 2011[update], of 5.7 square kilometers (2.2 sq mi).

[4] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks French (1,413 or 88.5%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (48 or 3.0%) and Portuguese is the third (47 or 2.9%).

[4] The historical population is given in the following chart:[11] The entire hamlet of Miéville is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 40.13% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 688 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 63.9%.

[14] In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 678 votes were cast, of which 45 or about 6.6% were invalid.

[4] There were 730 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.7% of the workforce.

In 2008[update] the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 394.

In the tertiary sector; 31 or 17.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 52 or 29.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 26 or 14.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 26 or 14.8% were in the information industry, 9 or 5.1% were technical professionals or scientists, and 2 or 1.1% were in health care.

[4] From the 2000 census[update], 1,364 or 85.4% were Roman Catholic, while 78 or 4.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

Rhone valley, with the lone wind turbine of Vernayaz in the foreground
Train of the Martigny–Châtelard line at Vernayaz MC in 2005