La Roche, Fribourg
Encyclopedia
La Roche 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....

.

History

La Roche is first mentioned in 1134 as de Rocha. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Zurflüh, however, that name is no longer used.

Geography

La Roche has an area, , of 24.1 square kilometre. Of this area, 11.32 square kilometre or 47.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 11.3 square kilometre or 46.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.97 square kilometre or 4.0% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.14 km² (34.6 acre) or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and 0.31 square kilometre or 1.3% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 43.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.0% is used for growing crops and 25.9% is pastures and 19.9% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Gruyère district. It consists of five large hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

; La Serbache, Scherwyl, Le Villaret, l'Adrey and Le Revers.

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 Azure three Pine Trees Vert trunked proper issuant from as many Mounts of the second and in chief as many Mullets of Five Argent.

Demographics

La Roche has a population of . , 11.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 9.6%. Migration accounted for 7.5%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.3%.

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...

 (1,219 or 92.5%) 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 (46 or 3.5%) and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 is the third (31 or 2.4%). There are 3 people who speak 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...

.

, the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. The population was made up of 627 Swiss men (43.4% of the population) and 85 (5.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 646 Swiss women (44.7%) and 87 (6.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 630 or about 47.8% were born in La Roche and lived there in 2000. There were 377 or 28.6% who were born in the same canton, while 110 or 8.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 130 or 9.9% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 27.4% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 56.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.8%.

, there were 569 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 601 married individuals, 91 widows or widowers and 57 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 467 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 124 households that consist of only one person and 58 households with five or more people. , a total of 449 apartments (79.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 91 apartments (16.0%) were seasonally occupied and 28 apartments (4.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.8 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.22%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

The Farm House at Vers Les Roulin 52 is listed as a 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...

.

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 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...

 which received 30.0% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...

 (24.2%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (19.5%) and 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....

 (16.2%).

The SVP improved their position in La Roche rising to first, from second in 2007 (with 27.2%) The CVP moved from first in 2007 (with 32.8%) to second in 2011, the SPS moved from fourth in 2007 (with 14.9%) to third and the FDP moved from third in 2007 (with 16.1%) to fourth. A total of 446 votes were cast in this election, of which 5 or 1.1% were invalid.

Economy

, La Roche had an unemployment rate of 3.1%. , there were 90 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 39 businesses involved in this sector. 256 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 16 businesses in this sector. 244 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 37 businesses in this sector. There were 640 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.7% 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 486. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 66, of which 65 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 243 of which 62 or (25.5%) were in manufacturing and 181 (74.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 177. In the tertiary sector; 41 or 23.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 19 or 10.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 29 or 16.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 1.7% were the insurance or financial industry, 9 or 5.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 4.5% were in education and 51 or 28.8% were in health care.

, there were 181 workers who commuted into the municipality and 378 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 6.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.9% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 1,118 or 84.8% were Roman Catholic, while 51 or 3.9% 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 6 members of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...

 (or about 0.46% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.15% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...

, and there were 16 individuals (or about 1.21% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 27 (or about 2.05% of the population) who were 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...

 and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 38 (or about 2.88% 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 66 individuals (or about 5.01% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In La Roche about 352 or (26.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 84 or (6.4%) 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 84 who completed tertiary schooling, 58.3% were Swiss men, 23.8% were Swiss women, 7.1% were non-Swiss men and 10.7% were non-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 125 students attending 7 classes in La Roche. A total of 268 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 19 students in the municipality. The municipality had 6 primary classes and 106 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 63 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 32 upper Secondary students and 49 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there was one non-university Tertiary student and 3 specialized Tertiary students who attended classes in another municipality.

, there were 25 students in La Roche who came from another municipality, while 95 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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