Plan-les-Ouates
Encyclopedia
Plan-les-Ouates 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...

 of 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 Geneva 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

Plan-les-Ouates is first mentioned in 1537 as Plan-des-Vuattes. In 1851 it became an independent municipality when the municipality of Compesières dissolved itself and the municipalities of Bardonnex
Bardonnex
Bardonnex is a municipality in the canton of Geneva in Switzerland.-Geography:Bardonnex has an area, , of . Of this area, or 73.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 3.4% is forested...

 and Plan-les-Ouates were formed.

Geography

Plan-les-Ouates has an area, , of 5.86 square kilometres (2.3 sq mi). Of this area, 2.58 km² (0.99614356916874 sq mi) or 44.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.21 km² (0.0810814533044324 sq mi) or 3.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.99 km² (1.2 sq mi) or 51.0% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.03 km² (7.4 acre) or 0.5% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 9.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 24.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 12.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.9% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.2%. Out of the forested land, 2.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 30.2% is used for growing crops and 4.3% is pastures, while 9.6% is used for orchards or vine crops.

The municipality is located on the left bank of the Rhone
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...

 river. It consists of the village of Plan-les-Ouates and the 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...

 of Arare and Saconnex d'Arve.

The municipality of Plan-les-Ouates consists of the sub-sections or villages of ZIPLO, Les Cherpines, Les Voirets, Plan-les-Ouates - village, Le Sapey, Bois d'Humilly, Drize - La Chapelle, Saconnex d'Arve - Dessus, Champ-Gredin, Arare - Plein-Vent, Arare - La Gravière.

Demographics

Plan-les-Ouates has a population of . , 24.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 58.5%. It has changed at a rate of 46.6% due to migration and at a rate of 11.3% 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...

 (5,890 or 86.6%), 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 (286 or 4.2%) 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...

 being third (151 or 2.2%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh.

, the gender distribution of the population was 48.6% male and 51.4% female. The population was made up of 3,638 Swiss men (36.1% of the population) and 1,258 (12.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 3,989 Swiss women (39.6%) and 1,182 (11.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 1,129 or about 16.6% were born in Plan-les-Ouates and lived there in 2000. There were 2,547 or 37.4% who were born in the same canton, while 1,072 or 15.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,831 or 26.9% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 81 live births to Swiss citizens and 24 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 26 deaths of Swiss citizens and 3 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 55 while the foreign population increased by 21. There were 16 Swiss men and 34 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 64 non-Swiss men and 41 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 143 and the non-Swiss population increased by 106 people. This represents a population growth rate of 2.6%.

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 10.6%.

, there were 2,902 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 3,273 married individuals, 235 widows or widowers and 394 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.63 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.64 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 45.7% 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 2,563 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 641 households that consist of only one person and 199 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 2,633 households that answered this question, 24.3% were households made up of just one person and there were 19 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 642 married couples without children, 1,011 married couples with children There were 218 single parents with a child or children. There were 32 households that were made up of unrelated people and 70 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 993 single family homes (or 74.2% of the total) out of a total of 1,339 inhabited buildings. There were 201 multi-family buildings (15.0%), along with 102 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (7.6%) and 43 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (3.2%). Of the single family homes 99 were built before 1919, while 135 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (237) were built between 1971 and 1980. The most multi-family homes (43) were built before 1919 and the next most (30) were built between 1996 and 2000.

there were 2,640 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 812. There were 153 single room apartments and 877 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 2,382 apartments (90.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 225 apartments (8.5%) were seasonally occupied and 33 apartments (1.3%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.11%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

The Forte D’Arare House, the Patek Philippe SA
Patek Philippe & Co.
Patek Philippe & Co. is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer located in Geneva and the Vallée de Joux.-History:Polish watchmaker Antoni Patek started making pocket watches in 1839 in Geneva, along with his fellow Polish migrant Franciszek Czapek. They separated in 1844, and in 1845 Patek joined with...

 Archives and the Vacheron Constantin
Vacheron Constantin
Vacheron Constantin is a Swiss manufacture of prestige watches and a brand of the Richemont group. Considered by watch enthusiasts to be one of the finest traditional watch makers in the world along with Patek Philippe & Co., Jaeger-LeCoultre and Audemars Piguet.It employs around 400 people...

 Archives are 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...

.

Twin Towns

Plan-les-Ouates is twinned
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...

 with the towns of Sângeorgiu de Mureş
Sângeorgiu de Mures
Sângeorgiu de Mureş is a commune in Mureş County, Transylvania, Romania composed of three villages:*Cotuş / Csejd*Sângeorgiu de Mureş*Tofalău / Tófalva-Demographics:...

, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 and Villefranche sur Mer, France
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...

.

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 21.03% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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:...

 (17.34%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (15.91%) and 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...

 (14.28%). In the federal election, a total of 2,594 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 50.4%.

In the 2009 Grand Conseil
Grand Council of Geneva
The Grand Council of Geneva is the legislature of the canton of Geneva, in Switzerland. Geneva, styled as a 'Republic and Canton', has a unicameral legislature. The Grand Council has 100 seats, with members elected every four years...

 election, there were a total of 5,361 registered voters of which 2,325 (43.4%) voted. The most popular party in the municipality for this election was the Les Verts
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:...

 with 15.4% of the ballots. In the canton-wide election they received the second highest proportion of votes. The second most popular party was the MCG (with 15.1%), they were third in the canton-wide election, while the third most popular party was the Libéral
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....

 (with 13.5%), they were first in the canton-wide election.

For the 2009 Conseil d'Etat election, there were a total of 5,359 registered voters of which 2,690 (50.2%) voted.

In 2011, all the municipalities held local elections, and in Plan-les-Ouates there were 25 spots open on the municipal council. There were a total of 6,684 registered voters of which 2,927 (43.8%) voted. Out of the 2,927 votes, there were 9 blank votes, 21 null or unreadable votes and 312 votes with a name that was not on the list.

Economy

, Plan-les-Ouates had an unemployment rate of 6.4%. , there were 104 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 7,209 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 154 businesses in this sector. 4,290 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 409 businesses in this sector. There were 3,395 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.5% 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 10,801. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 94, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 7,043 of which 6,079 or (86.3%) were in manufacturing and 964 (13.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 3,664. In the tertiary sector; 1,217 or 33.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 235 or 6.4% were in the movement and storage of goods, 156 or 4.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 392 or 10.7% were in the information industry, 81 or 2.2% were the insurance or financial industry, 613 or 16.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 233 or 6.4% were in education and 341 or 9.3% were in health care.

, there were 6,986 workers who commuted into the municipality and 2,800 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.5 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 22.9% of the workforce coming into Plan-les-Ouates are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 18.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.6% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 3,027 or 44.5% were Roman Catholic, while 1,268 or 18.6% 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 58 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 17 individuals (or about 0.25% 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 120 individuals (or about 1.76% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 19 individuals (or about 0.28% of the population) who were Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 97 (or about 1.43% 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 9 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...

, 5 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 11 individuals who belonged to another church. 1,707 (or about 25.09% 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 466 individuals (or about 6.85% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Plan-les-Ouates about 2,246 or (33.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,437 or (21.1%) 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 1,437 who completed tertiary schooling, 43.8% were Swiss men, 33.3% were Swiss women, 14.0% were non-Swiss men and 9.0% were non-Swiss women.

During the 2009-2010 school year there were a total of 2,716 students in the Plan-les-Ouates school system. The education system
Education in Switzerland
The education system in Switzerland is very diverse, because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system mainly to the cantons...

 in the Canton of Geneva allows young children to attend two years 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...

. During that school year, there were 272 children who were in a pre-kindergarten class. The canton's school system provides two years of non-mandatory kindergarten and requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In Plan-les-Ouates there were 428 students in kindergarten or primary school and 48 students were in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 428 lower secondary students who attended school in Plan-les-Ouates. There were 561 upper secondary students from the municipality along with 100 students who were in a professional, non-university track program. An additional 154 students attended a private school.

, there were 151 students in Plan-les-Ouates who came from another municipality, while 814 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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