Ballaigues
Encyclopedia
Ballaigues 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 Jura-Nord Vaudois 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....

.

History

Ballaigues is first mentioned in 1228 as Balevui. In 1453 it was mentioned as Bella Aqua.

Geography

Ballaigues has an area, , of 9 square kilometre. Of this area, 3.61 square kilometre or 40.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 4.48 square kilometre or 49.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.91 square kilometre or 10.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.05 km² (12.4 acre) or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.9%. Out of the forested land, 46.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.7% is used for growing crops and 33.0% is pastures and 5.9% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 0.3% is in rivers and streams.

The municipality was part of the Orbe District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Ballaigues became part of the new district of Jura-Nord Vaudois.

The municipality is located on the southern slope of the Suchet, on the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

-Swiss border. It consists of the village of Ballaigues and a number of 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...

.

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 Or, a lion rampant Azure, langued and crowned Gules.

Demographics

Ballaigues has a population of . , 9.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 2.6%. It has changed at a rate of 6.5% due to migration and at a rate of -3.9% 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...

 (808 or 92.8%), with 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...

 being second most common (22 or 2.5%) and 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 third (19 or 2.2%).

The age distribution, , in Ballaigues is; 76 children or 8.5% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 116 teenagers or 12.9% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 108 people or 12.1% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 102 people or 11.4% are between 30 and 39, 134 people or 15.0% are between 40 and 49, and 106 people or 11.8% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 126 people or 14.1% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 82 people or 9.2% are between 70 and 79, there are 39 people or 4.4% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 7 people or 0.8% who are 90 and older.

, there were 327 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 450 married individuals, 59 widows or widowers and 35 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.55 which is less people per room than 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 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 46.6% 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 343 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 90 households that consist of only one person and 31 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 348 households that answered this question, 25.9% were households made up of just one person and there was 1 adult who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 126 married couples without children, 111 married couples with children There were 12 single parents with a child or children. There were 3 households that were made up of unrelated people and 5 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 99 single family homes (or 47.8% of the total) out of a total of 207 inhabited buildings. There were 59 multi-family buildings (28.5%), along with 35 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (16.9%) and 14 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (6.8%).

, a total of 341 apartments (85.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 36 apartments (9.0%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (5.3%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.65%.

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 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 27.92% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (21.06%), 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....

 (11.47%) and the EDU Party
Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland
The Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland is a political party in Switzerland....

 (9.19%). In the federal election, a total of 290 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 45.7%.

Economy

, Ballaigues had an unemployment rate of 5.1%. , there were 35 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 656 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 16 businesses in this sector. 227 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 21 businesses in this sector. There were 420 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.9% 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 843. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 24, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 632 of which 612 or (96.8%) were in manufacturing and 20 (3.2%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 187. In the tertiary sector; 6 or 3.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in the movement and storage of goods, 12 or 6.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 108 or 57.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 4.3% were in education and 45 or 24.1% were in health care.

, there were 783 workers who commuted into the municipality and 205 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 3.8 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 35.8% of the workforce coming into Ballaigues are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 4.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.6% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 177 or 20.3% were Roman Catholic, while 463 or 53.2% 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 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 0.23% of the population), and there were 174 individuals (or about 19.98% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 7 (or about 0.80% 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 belonged to another church. 92 (or about 10.56% 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 34 individuals (or about 3.90% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Ballaigues about 334 or (38.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 87 or (10.0%) 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 87 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.2% were Swiss men, 21.8% were Swiss women, 9.2% were non-Swiss men and 5.7% were non-Swiss women.

In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 123 students in the Ballaigues 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 578 children of which 359 children (62.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 67 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 53 students in those schools. There were also 3 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.

, there were 23 students in Ballaigues who came from another municipality, while 93 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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