Founex

Founex is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

History

Signs of Roman-era inhabitation were found near ''Le Gachet''. The first appearance of the village was in 1224 under the name ''Fosnay''. In 1251 it changed to ''Founai''. During Middle Ages, Founex belonged to the abbey of Saint Maurice. It was later influenced by the Barony of Coppet, the diocese of Geneva and the Bernese occupation.

When the separation of Vaud from Bern occurred in 1536 the village came under control of the district of Nyon. In the 14th century a Cistercian abbey Bonmont and the dependent ''la Châtaigneraie'' joined Founex. After the Ancien Régime Founex was, from 1798 to 1803 in the Helvetic Republic's Canton of ''Léman''.

The French writer Hélène Grégoire (1904–1998), died in Founex.

In 2002, Founex and 8 other villages formed the area called the ''Terre Sainte'', although a formalisation of such union into a legal unification was rejected by the Founex general council on 30 August 2010.

Geography

Founex has an area, , of . Of this area, or 65.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 2.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 32.2% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 24.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.5% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 35.7% is used for growing crops and 4.4% is pastures, while 25.1% is used for orchards or vine crops.

The municipality was part of the Nyon District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Founex became part of the new district of Nyon.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011

It consists of the village of Founex and the hamlets of Châtaigneraie and Le Gachet.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Azure, scales Argent.''

Demographics

Founex has a population () of . , 42.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 24.9%. It has changed at a rate of 17.2% due to migration and at a rate of 7.9% due to births and deaths.
accessed 21-July-2011

Most of the population () speaks French (1,701 or 64.2%), with English being second most common (378 or 14.3%) and German being third (185 or 7.0%). There are 73 people who speak Italian.

The age distribution, , in Founex is; 418 children or 14.2% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 440 teenagers or 15.0% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 274 people or 9.3% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 383 people or 13.1% are between 30 and 39, 548 people or 18.7% are between 40 and 49, and 360 people or 12.3% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 291 people or 9.9% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 149 people or 5.1% are between 70 and 79, there are 64 people or 2.2% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 7 people or 0.2% who are 90 and older.Canton of Vaud Statistical Office
accessed 29 April 2011

, there were 1,113 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,351 married individuals, 66 widows or widowers and 118 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

, there were 986 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 238 households that consist of only one person and 100 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 995 households that answered this question, 23.9% were households made up of just one person and there were 5 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 250 married couples without children, 408 married couples with children There were 69 single parents with a child or children. There were 16 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 582 single family homes (or 80.1% of the total) out of a total of 727 inhabited buildings. There were 83 multi-family buildings (11.4%), along with 44 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (6.1%) and 18 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.5%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011

, a total of 851 apartments (88.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 79 apartments (8.2%) were seasonally occupied and 28 apartments (2.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:1850 from:start till:246 text:"246"
bar:1860 from:start till:241 text:"241"
bar:1870 from:start till:350 text:"350"
bar:1880 from:start till:370 text:"370"
bar:1888 from:start till:366 text:"366"
bar:1900 from:start till:374 text:"374"
bar:1910 from:start till:453 text:"453"
bar:1920 from:start till:434 text:"434"
bar:1930 from:start till:490 text:"490"
bar:1941 from:start till:458 text:"458"
bar:1950 from:start till:536 text:"536"
bar:1960 from:start till:693 text:"693"
bar:1970 from:start till:980 text:"980"
bar:1980 from:start till:1397 text:"1,397"
bar:1990 from:start till:1775 text:"1,775"
bar:2000 from:start till:2648 text:"2,648"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 24.48% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party (19.19%), the FDP (18.7%) and the SP (11.77%). In the federal election, a total of 634 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.4%.

Economy

, Founex had an unemployment rate of 3.2%. , there were 80 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 12 businesses involved in this sector. 39 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 14 businesses in this sector. 616 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 66 businesses in this sector. There were 1,268 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.3% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 598. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 60, of which 59 were in agriculture and were in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 31 of which 12 or (38.7%) were in manufacturing and 13 (41.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 507. In the tertiary sector; 26 or 5.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 6 or 1.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 23 or 4.5% were in a hotel or restaurant, 18 or 3.6% were in the information industry, 3 or 0.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 27 or 5.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 190 or 37.5% were in education and 14 or 2.8% were in health care.

, there were 373 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,039 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 16.9% of the workforce coming into Founex are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.2% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 69.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 872 or 32.9% were Roman Catholic, while 761 or 28.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 38 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.44% of the population), there were 6 individuals (or about 0.23% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 131 individuals (or about 4.95% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 25 individuals (or about 0.94% of the population) who were Jewish, and 74 (or about 2.79% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 5 individuals who were Buddhist, 4 individuals who were Hindu and 7 individuals who belonged to another church. 528 (or about 19.94% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 238 individuals (or about 8.99% of the population) did not answer the question.

The Catholic Chapel ''Saint Robert de Molesmes'' is located between the lake and the Swiss road. This building was erected in 1898-1899 on land donated by Baroness Double de Saint Lambert. It was inaugurated and blessed on August 3, 1899 by Monsignor Déruaz. On May 8, 1925 Monsignor Besson instituted it as a parish.

Education

The International School of Geneva's campus La Châtaigneraie is located in the locality of Châtaigneriaz.

In Founex about 723 or (27.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 796 or (30.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 796 who completed tertiary schooling, 33.4% were Swiss men, 20.9% were Swiss women, 24.5% were non-Swiss men and 21.2% were non-Swiss women.

In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 333 students in the Founex school district. In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts.Organigramme de l'école vaudoise, année scolaire 2009-2010
accessed 2 May 2011 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 186 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 147 students in those schools.Canton of Vaud Statistical Office - Scol. obligatoire/filières de transition
accessed 2 May 2011

, there were 811 students in Founex who came from another municipality, while 368 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

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{{Authority control

Municipalities of the canton of Vaud