Saillon

Saillon (sajɔ̃) is a municipality in the district of Martigny in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Saillon is first mentioned in 1052 as castellum Psallionis. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Schellon, however, that name is no longer used. Saillon has an area, , of . Of this area, or 37.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 20.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 31.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.1%. Out of the forested land, 16.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.2% is used for growing crops, while 24.2% is used for orchards or vine crops and 7.0% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 13.2% is unproductive vegetation and 17.9% is too rocky for vegetation. The municipality is located in the Martigny district, on the right bank of the Rhône. It consists of the village of Saillon and exclave of Euloi. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Tower Sable. Saillon has a population () of . , 19.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 38.4%. It has changed at a rate of 34.1% due to migration and at a rate of 5.7% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (1,365 or 89.9%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (85 or 5.6%) and German is the third (28 or 1.8%). There are 14 people who speak Italian. the population was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. The population was made up of 815 Swiss men (39.2% of the population) and 236 (11.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 814 Swiss women (39.1%) and 215 (10.3%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 627 or about 41.3% were born in Saillon and lived there in 2000.