Roche, Vaud
Encyclopedia
Roche 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 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....

, located in the district of Aigle
Aigle (district)
Aigle District is a district of the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.-Geography:Aigle has an area, , of . Of this area, or 34.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 41.3% is forested...

.

Geography

Roche has an area, , of 6.44 square kilometres (2.5 sq mi). Of this area, 3.28 km² (1.3 sq mi) or 50.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.92 km² (0.741316144497667 sq mi) or 29.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.1 km² (0.424712374451789 sq mi) or 17.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.05 km² (12.4 acre) or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and 0.06 km² (14.8 acre) or 0.9% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 4.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.2%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 4.0% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 45.8% is used for growing crops and 4.0% is pastures, while 1.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Aigle district, in 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...

 valley at the foot of Mont d'Arvel and along the banks of the Eau Froide gelegen. It consists of the village of Roche 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 Bez. Aigle, in der Rhoneebene am Fuss des Mont d'Arvel und am Ufer der Eau Froide gelegen.

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 Argent and Azure, a base chevrony irregular per pale Vert and Sable, a pine tree Vert and a Chamois proper.

Demographics

Roche has a population of . , 19.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 5.9%. It has changed at a rate of 7.5% due to migration and at a rate of -0.9% 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...

 (835 or 93.4%), 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 (18 or 2.0%) 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 (13 or 1.5%).

Of the population in the municipality 288 or about 32.2% were born in Roche and lived there in 2000. There were 296 or 33.1% who were born in the same canton, while 149 or 16.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 122 or 13.6% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 11 live births to Swiss citizens and 4 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 9 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 2 while the foreign population increased by 4. There were 2 Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 5 non-Swiss men and 11 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 20 and the non-Swiss population increased by 26 people. This represents a population growth rate of 5.1%.

The age distribution, , in Roche is; 100 children or 10.5% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 119 teenagers or 12.5% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 115 people or 12.0% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 121 people or 12.7% are between 30 and 39, 140 people or 14.7% are between 40 and 49, and 132 people or 13.8% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 117 people or 12.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 64 people or 6.7% are between 70 and 79,there are 43 people or 4.5% who are 80 and 89, and there are 4 people or 0.4% who are 90 and older.

, there were 309 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 469 married individuals, 70 widows or widowers and 46 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.61 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 40.7% 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 369 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 115 households that consist of only one person and 13 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 376 households that answered this question, 30.6% 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 117 married couples without children, 115 married couples with children There were 16 single parents with a child or children. There were 4 households that were made up of unrelated people and 7 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 110 single family homes (or 55.3% of the total) out of a total of 199 inhabited buildings. There were 53 multi-family buildings (26.6%), along with 20 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (10.1%) and 16 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (8.0%). Of the single family homes 27 were built before 1919, while 4 were built between 1990 and 2000. The most multi-family homes (24) were built before 1919 and the next most (7) were built between 1961 and 1970.

there were 428 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 142. There were 19 single room apartments and 78 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 359 apartments (83.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 43 apartments (10.0%) were seasonally occupied and 26 apartments (6.1%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 51.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.04%.

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 35.31% 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...

 (29.04%), 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....

 (18.61%) 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:...

 (5.64%). In the federal election, a total of 203 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 35.0%.

Economy

, Roche had an unemployment rate of 4.4%. , there were 46 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 247 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 16 businesses in this sector. 171 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 35 businesses in this sector. There were 462 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.5% 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 416. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 38, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 237 of which 129 or (54.4%) were in manufacturing and 84 (35.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 141. In the tertiary sector; 82 or 58.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 23 or 16.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 9 or 6.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.4% were in the information industry, 8 or 5.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 3.5% were in education and 2 or 1.4% were in health care.

, there were 256 workers who commuted into the municipality and 327 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 4.3% of the workforce coming into Roche are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 11.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 64.3% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 285 or 31.9% were Roman Catholic, while 447 or 50.0% 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 0.22% of the population), and there were 18 individuals (or about 2.01% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 9 (or about 1.01% 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 3 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...

. 70 (or about 7.83% 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 60 individuals (or about 6.71% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Roche about 364 or (40.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 41 or (4.6%) 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 41 who completed tertiary schooling, 65.9% were Swiss men, 14.6% were Swiss women, 14.6% were non-Swiss men.

In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 156 students in the Roche (VD) 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 205 children of which 96 children (46.8%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 88 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 66 students in those schools. There were also 2 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.

, there were 86 students in Roche who came from another municipality, while 65 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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