Gland, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Gland 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 Nyon
Nyon (district)
Nyon District is a district in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. The seat of the district is the city of Nyon.-Geography:Nyon has an area, , of . Of this area, or 42.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 44.7% is forested...

 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

Gland is known to have been a prehistoric settlement. During the Roman period
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

 a farm called Villa Glanis was there. Until the 1960s, Gland was merely a small farming village (essentially vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

s and cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

).

Gland is first mentioned around 994 -1049 as de Glans.

In the 1930s, the Toblerone line
Toblerone line
The Toblerone line is a 10-km long defensive line made of dragon's teeth that was built during the second World War between Bassins and Prangins, in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. These lines of defensive blocks can be found all over Switzerland, but more predominantly in border areas. Their...

, a defensive line, was built at the edge of Gland. Its purpose was to stop a tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...

 invasion
Invasion
An invasion is a military offensive consisting of all, or large parts of the armed forces of one geopolitical entity aggressively entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering, liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a...

 from the west.

The opening of the highway linking Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 with Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

 brought many commuter
Commuting
Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.- History :...

s to this quiet place. It is only since the mid-1980s that Gland has started to grow into a town with its own businesses and shopping centers.

Geography

Gland has an area, , of 8.3 square kilometre. Of this area, 3.81 square kilometre or 45.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.22 square kilometre or 14.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.33 square kilometre or 40.0% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 18.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.9%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 3.5% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 6.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 29.0% is used for growing crops and 5.0% is pastures, while 11.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality was part of the Nyon District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Gland became part of the new district of Nyon.

The municipality is located between Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...

 and the Côte region.

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 Argent, from a hill Vert an Oak-tree of the same fructed Or.

The French word 'Gland' means 'acorn'. Hence the prominence of acorns in the town's coat of arms.

Demographics

Gland has a population of . , 32.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 21.4%. It has changed at a rate of 9.5% due to migration and at a rate of 12% 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...

 (7,677 or 79.4%), 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 (628 or 6.5%) and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 being third (346 or 3.6%). There are 253 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...

 and 7 people who speak Romansh.

The age distribution, , in Gland is; 1,464 children or 13.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 1,523 teenagers or 13.5% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 1,424 people or 12.6% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,973 people or 17.5% are between 30 and 39, 2,067 people or 18.3% are between 40 and 49, and 1,347 people or 11.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 928 people or 8.2% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 385 people or 3.4% are between 70 and 79, there are 164 people or 1.5% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 25 people or 0.2% who are 90 and older.

, there were 4,219 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 4,589 married individuals, 258 widows or widowers and 597 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.67 which is more 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 28.5% 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 3,924 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 1,208 households that consist of only one person and 241 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 4,005 households that answered this question, 30.2% were households made up of just one person and there were 7 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 940 married couples without children, 1,417 married couples with children There were 298 single parents with a child or children. There were 54 households that were made up of unrelated people and 81 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 521 single family homes (or 49.0% of the total) out of a total of 1,064 inhabited buildings. There were 350 multi-family buildings (32.9%), along with 119 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (11.2%) and 74 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (7.0%).

, a total of 3,773 apartments (89.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 392 apartments (9.3%) were seasonally occupied and 57 apartments (1.4%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 4.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.18%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

The La Rajada with villa, out buildings and land 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 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 21.38% 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...

 (20.4%), 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:...

 (13.66%) 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....

 (13.63%). In the federal election, a total of 2,221 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 39.5%.

Economy

Since it is located halfway between the cities of Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 and Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

, many international companies and organizations have offices in Gland, among others Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), the Ramsar Convention
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...

 and World Wide Fund for Nature
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...

. The online brokerage and bank, Swissquote, has its headquarters in Gland.

, Gland had an unemployment rate of 5.5%. , there were 83 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 14 businesses involved in this sector. 838 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 120 businesses in this sector. 3,857 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 403 businesses in this sector. There were 5,302 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.7% 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 4,092. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 44, of which 42 were in agriculture and 2 were in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 794 of which 410 or (51.6%) were in manufacturing, 24 or (3.0%) were in mining and 313 (39.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 3,254. In the tertiary sector; 1,118 or 34.4% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 80 or 2.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 156 or 4.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 106 or 3.3% were in the information industry, 243 or 7.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 157 or 4.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 209 or 6.4% were in education and 336 or 10.3% were in health care.

, there were 2,833 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,872 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 12.2% of the workforce coming into Gland are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.1% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 18.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 3,565 or 36.9% were Roman Catholic, while 2,943 or 30.5% 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 82 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 0.85% of the population), there were 10 individuals (or about 0.10% 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 970 individuals (or about 10.04% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 29 individuals (or about 0.30% of the population) who were Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 286 (or about 2.96% 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 25 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...

, 23 individuals who were Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and 20 individuals who belonged to another church. 1,656 (or about 17.14% 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 519 individuals (or about 5.37% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Gland about 3,413 or (35.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,620 or (16.8%) 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 1,620 who completed tertiary schooling, 43.1% were Swiss men, 25.1% were Swiss women, 17.2% were non-Swiss men and 14.6% were non-Swiss women.

In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 1,573 students in the Gland 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 1,249 children of which 563 children (45.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 830 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 701 students in those schools. There were also 42 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.

, there were 272 students in Gland who came from another municipality, while 451 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Gland is home to the Bibl. scolaire et communale de Gland library. The library has 22,346 books or other media, and loaned out 41,248 items in the same year. It was open a total of 251 days with average of 51 hours per week during that year.

Sport

Gland is home to the football team FC Gland
FC Gland
FC Gland, formerly Etoile FC Gland , or l'Etoile Sportive is a Swiss sports club located in Gland...

. They currently play in the fifth level of the Swiss Football League
Swiss Football League
The Swiss Football League is organised in several leagues.-Proposed system from 2012-13 season onwards:-External links:* * * * *...

, in the Association Cantonale Vaudoise de Football (ACVF)

Notable residents

It is also the home of Seven time Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

 World Champion, Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher is a German Formula One racing driver for the Mercedes GP team. Famous for his eleven-year spell with Ferrari, Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion and is widely regarded as the greatest F1 driver of all time...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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