Semsales

Semsales is first mentioned about 1100 as septem salis. ==Geography==

Semsales has an area of . Of this area, or 46.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 48.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.5% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 45.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.7% is used for growing crops and 20.3% is pastures and 20.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. (1925) ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure two Columns issuant from as many Mounts all Argent encircled with seven Mullet of Five three and two and two. ==Demographics==

Semsales has a population () of . , 10.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 13%. Migration accounted for 9.8%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.3%. Most of the population () speaks French (956 or 93.8%) as their first language, German is the second most common (29 or 2.8%) and Portuguese is the third (9 or 0.9%). There are 7 people who speak Italian. Of the population in the municipality, 457 or about 44.8% were born in Semsales and lived there in 2000. There were 260 or 25.5% who were born in the same canton, while 171 or 16.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 80 or 7.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 407 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 12.3 new units per 1000 residents. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1100 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:754 text:"754" bar:1860 from:start till:876 text:"876" bar:1870 from:start till:921 text:"921" bar:1880 from:start till:878 text:"878" bar:1888 from:start till:888 text:"888" bar:1900 from:start till:981 text:"981" bar:1910 from:start till:1001 text:"1,001" bar:1920 from:start till:1030 text:"1,030" bar:1930 from:start till:931 text:"931" bar:1941 from:start till:917 text:"917" bar:1950 from:start till:915 text:"915" bar:1960 from:start till:824 text:"824" bar:1970 from:start till:829 text:"829" bar:1980 from:start till:866 text:"866" bar:1990 from:start till:951 text:"951" bar:2000 from:start till:1019 text:"1,019" ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 26.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (23.4%), the CVP (20.4%) and the FDP (17.2%). The SVP improved their position in Semsales rising to first, from second in 2007 (with 22.8%) The SPS moved from third in 2007 (with 20.8%) to second in 2011, the CVP moved from first in 2007 (with 29.2%) to third and the FDP retained about the same popularity (20.6% in 2007). A total of 398 votes were cast in this election, of which 7 or 1.8% were invalid. ==Economy==

, Semsales had an unemployment rate of 2.9%. , there were 75 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 26 businesses involved in this sector. 114 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 21 businesses in this sector. 110 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 28 businesses in this sector. , there were 83 workers who commuted into the municipality and 378 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 7.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 71.2% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 817 or 80.2% were Roman Catholic, while 80 or 7.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 5 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.49% of the population), and there were 12 individuals (or about 1.18% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 8 (or about 0.79% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 person who was Hindu and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 58 (or about 5.69% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 41 individuals (or about 4.02% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Semsales about 316 or (31.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 84 or (8.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 84 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.1% were Swiss men, 21.4% were Swiss women, 8.3% were non-Swiss men and 7.1% were non-Swiss women. During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 135 students attending 7 classes in Semsales. A total of 201 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 31 students in the municipality. The municipality had 5 primary classes and 104 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 37 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 6 upper Secondary students and 23 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there was one specialized Tertiary student who attended classes in another municipality. , there were 34 students in Semsales who came from another municipality, while 77 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Notably, Semsales has a large percentage of youth who chose to attend post-secondary schools overseas in Canada. One such resident, Joane Maillard, has gone on to be a "Nova Scotia future women leaders" award winner at the Gerald Schwartz School of Business. ==References==