Penthalaz
Encyclopedia
Penthalaz 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 Gros-de-Vaud 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 Vaud
Vaud
Vaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,...

 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

Penthalaz has an area, , of 3.87 square kilometres (1.5 sq mi). Of this area, 2.16 km² (0.833980662559876 sq mi) or 55.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.65 km² (0.250966403085148 sq mi) or 16.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.98 km² (0.378380115420684 sq mi) or 25.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.06 km² (14.8 acre) or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 12.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.0%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 15.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 47.0% is used for growing crops and 7.2% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality was part of the Cossonay District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Penthalaz became part of the new district of Gros-de-Vaud.

The municipality is located along the left bank of the Venoge river
Venoge (river)
The Venoge is a Swiss river located in the Canton of Vaud, a confluent of the Rhône River, via Lake Geneva. The Swiss poet Jean Villard Gilles has written a poem about it, La Venoge, in 1954.- Geography :...

. It consists of the village of Penthalaz, the working class neighborhood Sous la Ville, the residental neighborhood Bellevue and the industrial zone Cossonay-Gare.

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 Per pale Azure and Or, overall a Bend wavy Argent, two Mining-weels counterchanged.

Demographics

Penthalaz has a population of . , 20.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 25.7%. It has changed at a rate of 27.4% due to migration and at a rate of -1.1% due to births and deaths.

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...

 (2,000 or 87.6%), with 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....

 being second most common (64 or 2.8%) 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...

 being third (53 or 2.3%). There are 47 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...

.

Of the population in the municipality 465 or about 20.4% were born in Penthalaz and lived there in 2000. There were 993 or 43.5% who were born in the same canton, while 319 or 14.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 445 or 19.5% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 22 live births to Swiss citizens and 8 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 17 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population increased by 6. There was 1 Swiss man and 1 Swiss woman who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 26 non-Swiss men and 25 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 66 and the non-Swiss population increased by 89 people. This represents a population growth rate of 6.4%.

The age distribution, , in Penthalaz is; 285 children or 10.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 312 teenagers or 10.9% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 415 people or 14.5% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 488 people or 17.1% are between 30 and 39, 460 people or 16.1% are between 40 and 49, and 340 people or 11.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 269 people or 9.4% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 171 people or 6.0% are between 70 and 79, there are 94 people or 3.3% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 24 people or 0.8% who are 90 and older.

, there were 853 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,160 married individuals, 155 widows or widowers and 115 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.63 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.61 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 28% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...

 or a rent-to-own agreement).

, there were 979 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 314 households that consist of only one person and 42 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 994 households that answered this question, 31.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 3 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 292 married couples without children, 314 married couples with children There were 43 single parents with a child or children. There were 13 households that were made up of unrelated people and 15 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 212 single family homes (or 52.9% of the total) out of a total of 401 inhabited buildings. There were 129 multi-family buildings (32.2%), along with 41 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (10.2%) and 19 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.7%). Of the single family homes 13 were built before 1919, while 32 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (47) were built between 1946 and 1960. The most multi-family homes (33) were built between 1946 and 1960 and the next most (32) were built before 1919. There were 2 multi-family houses built between 1996 and 2000.

there were 1,035 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 419. There were 34 single room apartments and 196 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 969 apartments (93.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 51 apartments (4.9%) were seasonally occupied and 15 apartments (1.4%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 35.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.67%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Politics

In 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...

 the most popular party was the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 which received 28.91% 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...

 (22.11%), 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....

 (15.42%) and the Green Party
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (11.46%). In the federal election, a total of 626 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 was 40.3%.

Economy

, Penthalaz had an unemployment rate of 6.3%. , there were 16 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 547 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 29 businesses in this sector. 457 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 64 businesses in this sector. There were 1,169 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.1% 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 887. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 8, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 520 of which 486 or (93.5%) were in manufacturing and 35 (6.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 359. In the tertiary sector; 112 or 31.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 2.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 27 or 7.5% were in a hotel or restaurant, 26 or 7.2% were in the information industry, 4 or 1.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 33 or 9.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 17 or 4.7% were in education and 46 or 12.8% were in health care.

, there were 554 workers who commuted into the municipality and 885 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 1.6% of the workforce coming into Penthalaz are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 15.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.9% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 590 or 25.8% were Roman Catholic, while 1,181 or 51.7% 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 46 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 2.01% of the population), and there were 97 individuals (or about 4.25% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were58 (or about 2.54% 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 were 2 individuals who were 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 8 individuals who belonged to another church. 256 (or about 11.21% 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 87 individuals (or about 3.81% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Penthalaz about 915 or (40.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 233 or (10.2%) 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 233 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.2% were Swiss men, 27.0% were Swiss women, 12.0% were non-Swiss men and 4.7% were non-Swiss women.

In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 312 students in the Penthalaz school district. In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 296 children of which 96 children (32.4%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 156 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 156 students in those schools.

, there were 336 students in Penthalaz who came from another municipality, while 166 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK