Vallon
Encyclopedia
Vallon 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 Broye
Broye (district)
Broye District is a one of the seven districts of the Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland, lying in the vicinity of Lake Neuchâtel. Its territory is non-contiguous and Broye is fragmented into four parts, three of which exist as exclaves from the canton of Fribourg...

, in the canton of Fribourg
Canton of Fribourg
The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas is the German name for both the canton and the town.-History:...

, 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....

.

Geography

Vallon has an area, , of 3.5 square kilometre. Of this area, 3.09 square kilometre or 88.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.12 square kilometre or 3.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.31 square kilometre or 8.8% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.3% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 78.6% is used for growing crops and 8.0% is pastures, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops.

The municipality is located in the Broye district, in the Vully foothills. It consists of the village of Vallon and the hamlet
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 Carignan.

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, on a Fess Gules three Ogresses.

Demographics

Vallon has a population of . , 11.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 11.3%. Migration accounted for 8.8%, while births and deaths accounted for 5.6%.

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...

 (233 or 87.3%) as their first language, 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....

 is the second most common (29 or 10.9%) and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 is the third (4 or 1.5%). There is 1 person who speaks 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 population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. The population was made up of 143 Swiss men (45.1% of the population) and 16 (5.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 133 Swiss women (42.0%) and 25 (7.9%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 88 or about 33.0% were born in Vallon and lived there in 2000. There were 54 or 20.2% who were born in the same canton, while 95 or 35.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 20 or 7.5% were born outside of Switzerland.

The age distribution, , in Vallon is; 39 children or 14.6% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 35 teenagers or 13.1% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 37 people or 13.9% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 41 people or 15.4% are between 30 and 39, 31 people or 11.6% are between 40 and 49, and 40 people or 15.0% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 14 people or 5.2% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 17 people or 6.4% are between 70 and 79, there are 11 people or 4.1% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 2 people or 0.7% who are 90 and older.

, there were 105 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 128 married individuals, 16 widows or widowers and 18 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 108 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 29 households that consist of only one person and 9 households with five or more people. , a total of 104 apartments (92.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 7 apartments (6.3%) were seasonally occupied and one apartment was empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.2 new units per 1000 residents.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

The Saint-Pierre Church and Sur Dompierre, Gallo-Roman Villa 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...

.File:Vallon eglise musee romain.jpg | Saint-Pierre Church

Politics

In the 2011 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2011
Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 23 October 2011.All of the Federal Assembly were to be elected: all 200 seats in the National Council and all 46 seats in the Council of States....

 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 31.9% 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...

 (19.6%), 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...

 (18.3%) 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....

 (10.4%).

The SPS improved their position in Vallon rising to first, from third in 2007 (with 23.8%) The SVP lost popularity (24.9% in 2007), the CVP moved from first in 2007 (with 28.9%) to third and the FDP moved from below fourth place in 2007 to fourth. A total of 88 votes were cast in this election, of which 4 or 4.5% were invalid.

Economy

, Vallon had an unemployment rate of 2.4%. , there were 22 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 4 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 3 businesses in this sector. 18 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 6 businesses in this sector. There were 135 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.0% 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 34. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 18, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3, all of which were in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 13. In the tertiary sector; 5 or 38.5% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 8 or 61.5% were in education.

, there were 15 workers who commuted into the municipality and 95 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 5.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 68.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 177 or 66.3% were Roman Catholic, while 55 or 20.6% 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 was 1 member of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...

, and there was 1 individual who belongs to another Christian church. 25 (or about 9.36% 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 8 individuals (or about 3.00% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Vallon about 97 or (36.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 25 or (9.4%) 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 25 who completed tertiary schooling, 80.0% were Swiss men, 16.0% were Swiss women.

The Canton of Fribourg school system provides one year 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...

, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend a three or four year optional upper Secondary school. The upper Secondary school is divided into gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 (university preparatory) and vocational programs. After they finish the upper Secondary program, students may choose to attend a Tertiary school or continue their apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

.

During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 46 students attending 3 classes in Vallon. A total of 66 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 46 students in the municipality. The municipality had no primary school classes, but 29 students attended primary school in a neighboring municipality. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 17 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 10 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there was one specialized Tertiary student who attended classes in another municipality.

, there were 22 students in Vallon who came from another municipality, while 30 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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