Cerniat
Encyclopedia
Cerniat is a municipality
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the district of Gruyère
Gruyère (district)
Gruyère District is a district of the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. It has a population of . Its capital is Bulle.-Municipalities:-Mergers and name changes:...

 in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Fribourg in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

Geography

Cerniat has an area, , of 33.7 square kilometre. Of this area, 13.78 square kilometre or 40.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 18.47 square kilometre or 54.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.79 square kilometre or 2.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.26 square kilometre or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and 0.43 square kilometre or 1.3% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 51.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land 7.0% is pastures and 33.9% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

Coat of arms

The blazon
Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...

 of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is Gules a Bend Argent between an Orb in chief and a Cattle in base Or.

Demographics

Cerniat has a population of . , 5.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of -0.9%. Migration accounted for -3%, while births and deaths accounted for -2.7%.

Most of the population speaks French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 (294 or 88.6%) as their first language, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 is the second most common (32 or 9.6%) and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 is the third (1 or 0.3%).

, the population was 53.1% male and 46.9% female. The population was made up of 154 Swiss men (49.8% of the population) and 10 (3.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 133 Swiss women (43.0%) and 12 (3.9%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 157 or about 47.3% were born in Cerniat and lived there in 2000. There were 96 or 28.9% who were born in the same canton, while 54 or 16.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 24 or 7.2% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 21.7% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 62% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.3%.

, there were 153 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 139 married individuals, 20 widows or widowers and 20 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 128 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 40 households that consist of only one person and 11 households with five or more people. , a total of 126 apartments (64.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 52 apartments (26.7%) were seasonally occupied and 17 apartments (8.7%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.1 new units per 1000 residents.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

The Chartreuse De La Valsainte is listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance
Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...

. The entire La Valsainte area is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...

.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2011
Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 23 October 2011.All of the Federal Assembly were to be elected: all 200 seats in the National Council and all 46 seats in the Council of States....

 the most popular party was the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...

 which received 37.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 (25.7%), the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....

 (15.4%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (12.5%).

The CVP lost about 17.6% of the vote when compared to the 2007 Federal election
Swiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...

 (54.9% in 2007 vs 37.2% in 2011). The SVP gained popularity (19.3% in 2007), the FDP retained about the same popularity (11.2% in 2007) and the SPS gained popularity (5.8% in 2007). A total of 166 votes were cast in this election, of which 2 or 1.2% were invalid.

Economy

, Cerniat had an unemployment rate of 0.9%. , there were 35 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 8 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 4 businesses in this sector. 12 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 6 businesses in this sector. There were 168 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 33.9% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...

 jobs was 42. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 24, of which 23 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 8, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 10. In the tertiary sector; 3 were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 2 were in a hotel or restaurant and 3 were in education.

, there were 13 workers who commuted into the municipality and 113 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.3% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 304 or 91.6% were Roman Catholic, while 12 or 3.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
Swiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 individuals (or about 0.60% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. There was 1 person who was Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

. 9 (or about 2.71% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....

 or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, and 3 individuals (or about 0.90% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Cerniat about 106 or (31.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 28 or (8.4%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

). Of the 28 who completed tertiary schooling, 57.1% were Swiss men, 32.1% were Swiss women.

The Canton of Fribourg school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend a three or four year optional upper Secondary school. The upper Secondary school is divided into gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 (university preparatory) and vocational programs. After they finish the upper Secondary program, students may choose to attend a Tertiary school or continue their apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

.

During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 28 students attending 2 classes in Cerniat. A total of 44 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality, but 4 students attended kindergarten in a neighboring municipality. The municipality had 2 primary classes and 28 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 6 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 2 upper Secondary students and 7 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes. who attended classes in another municipality.
]
, there were 14 students in Cerniat who came from another municipality, while 35 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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