Presinge
Encyclopedia
Presinge 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

Presinge is first mentioned after 1000 as in Presiago. In 1180 it was mentioned as villa que appellatur Presingium.

The village of Presinge was part of ancient Burgundy and settled in 443 by 'le peuple germanique des Burgondes'. Regarding the German-sounding names of the surrounding villages - albeit now with French spelling (adding an '-e' to the ending) - the text cites the villages of Presinge, Puplinge, Corsinge, Merlinge, etc. - 'which tended to indicate an area of Germanic preponderance'.

The branch of the noble family (Presinge/Pressinge) that gave its name to the village decreased in influence and number very gradually over the centuries.

There is a copy of an old map dated 1740 by Philippe Bauche (the original is kept in the Bibliothèque Publique et Univeritaire, Geneva) showing the other old spelling of "Pressinge".

Geography

Presinge has an area, , of 4.72 square kilometres (1.8 sq mi). Of this area, 3.2 km² (1.2 sq mi) or 67.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.88 km² (0.339769899561431 sq mi) or 18.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.61 km² (0.235522316741446 sq mi) or 12.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.2% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 8.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.4%. Out of the forested land, 16.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 54.0% is used for growing crops and 6.6% is pastures, while 7.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

It consists of the village of Presinge 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 Cara and La Louvière.

The municipality of Presinge consists of the sub-sections or villages of Cara, L'Abbaye, Presinge, La Renfile and La Louvière.

Demographics

Presinge has a population of . , 16.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 7.8%. It has changed at a rate of 32.1% due to migration and at a rate of -22% 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...

 (520 or 84.7%), with Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...

 being second most common (22 or 3.6%) 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 (15 or 2.4%). There are 6 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 gender distribution of the population was 47.0% male and 53.0% female. The population was made up of 228 Swiss men (34.7% of the population) and 81 (12.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 266 Swiss women (40.4%) and 83 (12.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 94 or about 15.3% were born in Presinge and lived there in 2000. There were 207 or 33.7% who were born in the same canton, while 75 or 12.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 124 or 20.2% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 3 live births to Swiss citizens and were 15 deaths of Swiss citizens and 3 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 12 while the foreign population decreased by 3. There were 3 Swiss men and 5 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 10 non-Swiss men and 5 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 a decrease of 9 and the non-Swiss population increased by 14 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.8%. The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 53.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.9%.

, there were 256 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 264 married individuals, 61 widows or widowers and 33 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 0.64 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 42.9% 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 184 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 52 households that consist of only one person and 19 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 193 households that answered this question, 26.9% were households made up of just one person and there were 2 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 48 married couples without children, 66 married couples with children There were 14 single parents with a child or children. There were 2 households that were made up of unrelated people and 9 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 78 single family homes (or 62.4% of the total) out of a total of 125 inhabited buildings. There were 20 multi-family buildings (16.0%), along with 22 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (17.6%) and 5 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.0%). Of the single family homes 28 were built before 1919, while 10 were built between 1990 and 2000. The most multi-family homes (6) were built before 1919 and the next most (4) were built between 1991 and 1995. There was 1 multi-family house built between 1996 and 2000.

there were 194 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 44. There were 3 single room apartments and 83 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 170 apartments (87.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 15 apartments (7.7%) were seasonally occupied and 9 apartments (4.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%.

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 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:...

 which received 21.09% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party
Liberal Party of Switzerland
The Liberal Party of Switzerland was a party with economically liberal policies. It was known as a party of the upper class. On 1 January 2009 it merged with the larger Free Democratic Party to establish FDP.The Liberals....

 (17.51%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (16.05%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (16.05%). In the federal election, a total of 197 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 48.6%.

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 408 registered voters of which 188 (46.1%) 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 22.5% of the ballots. In the canton-wide election they received the second highest proportion of votes. The second 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 17.1%), they were first in the canton-wide election, while the third most popular party was the PDC
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...

 (with 13.9%), they were fifth in the canton-wide election.

For the 2009 Conseil d'Etat election, there were a total of 408 registered voters of which 217 (53.2%) voted.

In 2011, all the municipalities held local elections, and in Presinge there were 11 spots open on the municipal council. There were a total of 431 registered voters of which 245 (56.8%) voted. Out of the 245 votes, there were 1 blank votes, 3 null or unreadable votes and 78 votes with a name that was not on the list.

Economy

, Presinge had an unemployment rate of 4.8%. , there were 25 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 5 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 4 businesses in this sector. 158 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 15 businesses in this sector. There were 235 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 46.8% 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 157. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 16, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 5 of which 1 was in manufacturing and 4 (80.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 136. In the tertiary sector; 3 or 2.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 8 or 5.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 18 or 13.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 21 or 15.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 2 or 1.5% were in education and 72 or 52.9% were in health care.

, there were 159 workers who commuted into the municipality and 181 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 21.4% of the workforce coming into Presinge are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 11.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 64.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 224 or 36.5% were Roman Catholic, while 139 or 22.6% 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 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 0.33% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.49% 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 6 individuals (or about 0.98% 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 1 individual who was Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic, and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 118 (or about 19.22% 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 119 individuals (or about 19.38% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Presinge about 151 or (24.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 133 or (21.7%) 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 133 who completed tertiary schooling, 46.6% were Swiss men, 37.6% were Swiss women, 9.0% were non-Swiss men and 6.8% were non-Swiss women.

During the 2009-2010 school year there were a total of 126 students in the Presinge 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 9 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 Presinge there were 14 students in kindergarten or primary school and - 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 14 lower secondary students who attended school in Presinge. There were 28 upper secondary students from the municipality along with 8 students who were in a professional, non-university track program. An additional 23 students attended a private school.

, there were 4 students in Presinge who came from another municipality, while 82 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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