Épalinges (; ) is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the district of
Lausanne
Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
in the
canton of
Vaud
Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...
in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.
It is a suburb of the city of
Lausanne
Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
.
History
Épalinges is first mentioned in 1182 as ''de Spanengis''.
[
]
Geography
Épalinges has an area, , of . Of this area, or 18.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 25.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 56.7% 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 42.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.3% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.5%. Out of the forested land, 24.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.7% is used for growing crops and 6.8% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops.[
The municipality was part of the Lausanne District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Épalinges became part of the new district of Lausanne.][Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
accessed 4 April 2011
The municipality is surrounded by Lausanne. It consists of the villages of Épalinges-Village, Les Croisettes, La Croix-Blanche and multiple hamlets
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
.
Coat of arms
The 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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
is ''Per fess Argent and Gules, a Gander Sable lined of the first and beaked of the second overall.''
Demographics
People from Épalinges are known as ''Palinsards''.
Épalinges has a population () of . , 23.2% 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 12.4%. It has changed at a rate of 7.6% due to migration and at a rate of 5.2% due to births and deaths.
accessed 16-June-2011German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
being second most common (410 or 5.5%) and English being third (149 or 2.0%). There are 148 people who speak Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
and 5 people who speak Romansh.[
Of the population in the municipality 1,190 or about 15.8% were born in Épalinges and lived there in 2000. There were 2,824 or 37.6% who were born in the same canton, while 1,358 or 18.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,971 or 26.2% were born outside of Switzerland.][
In there were 44 live births to Swiss citizens and 26 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 35 deaths of Swiss citizens and 4 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 9 while the foreign population increased by 22. There were 4 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland and 7 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 51 non-Swiss men and 45 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 99 and the non-Swiss population increased by 111 people. This represents a ]population growth rate
Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...
of 2.6%.[
The age distribution, , in Épalinges is; 953 children or 11.4% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 1,072 teenagers or 12.8% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 1,043 people or 12.5% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,086 people or 13.0% are between 30 and 39, 1,295 people or 15.5% are between 40 and 49, and 1,078 people or 12.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 910 people or 10.9% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 595 people or 7.1% are between 70 and 79, there are 271 people or 3.2% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 43 people or 0.5% who are 90 and older.][Canton of Vaud Statistical Office]
accessed 29 April 2011
, there were 3,114 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 3,680 married individuals, 333 widows or widowers and 389 individuals who are divorced.[STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 3,160 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household.[ There were 983 households that consist of only one person and 183 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 3,216 households that answered this question, 30.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 11 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 888 married couples without children, 1,032 married couples with children. There were 194 single parents with a child or children. There were 52 households that were made up of unrelated people and 56 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.][
there were 852 single family homes (or 68.5% of the total) out of a total of 1,244 inhabited buildings. There were 269 multi-family buildings (21.6%), along with 92 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (7.4%) and 31 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.5%). Of the single family homes 49 were built before 1919, while 118 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (227) were built between 1981 and 1990. The most multi-family homes (54) were built between 1981 and 1990 and the next most (41) were built between 1961 and 1970. There were 38 multi-family houses built between 1996 and 2000.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
there were 3,468 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 896. There were 207 single room apartments and 1,083 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 3,106 apartments (89.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 310 apartments (8.9%) were seasonally occupied and 52 apartments (1.5%) were empty.[ , the construction rate of new housing units was 11.1 new units per 1000 residents.][ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.96%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 22.87% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (17.28%), the Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
(15.89%) and the FDP (15.44%). In the federal election, a total of 2,387 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
was 49.5%.
Economy
Épalinges hosts the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), a private not-for-profit foundation founded in 1964, as well as the (HSeT), a non-profit organization dedicated to web-based learning and teaching activities in the field of health sciences.
, Épalinges had an unemployment rate of 4%. , there were 6 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 212 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 31 businesses in this sector. 1,697 people were employed in the tertiary sector
The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...
, with 201 businesses in this sector.[ There were 3,781 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.8% of the workforce.
the total number of ]full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...
jobs was 1,591. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 3, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 198 of which 71 or (35.9%) were in manufacturing and 127 (64.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,390. In the tertiary sector; 255 or 18.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 35 or 2.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 70 or 5.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 24 or 1.7% were in the information industry, 18 or 1.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 416 or 29.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 137 or 9.9% were in education and 278 or 20.0% were in health care.
, there were 1,241 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,057 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 1.9% of the workforce coming into Épalinges are coming from outside Switzerland.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 24.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 60% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 2,666 or 35.5% were Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 2,845 or 37.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 69 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.92% of the population), there were 4 individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 435 individuals (or about 5.79% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 43 individuals (or about 0.57% of the population) who were Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
, and 199 (or about 2.65% of the population) who were Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. There were 22 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
, 11 individuals who were Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
and 15 individuals who belonged to another church. 1,100 (or about 14.64% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
or atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and 315 individuals (or about 4.19% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Épalinges about 2,685 or (35.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,738 or (23.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
or a ''Fachhochschule
A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...
''). Of the 1,738 who completed tertiary schooling, 49.0% were Swiss men, 29.3% were Swiss women, 12.7% were non-Swiss men and 9.0% were non-Swiss women.[
In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 976 students in the Épalinges 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 2,648 children of which 1,947 children (73.5%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
program requires students to attend for four years. There were 544 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 405 students in those schools. There were also 27 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.[Canton of Vaud Statistical Office - Scol. obligatoire/filières de transition]
accessed 2 May 2011
, there were 77 students in Épalinges who came from another municipality, while 679 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
Sports
The General Secretariat of the European Golf Association
The European Golf Association (EGA) is a non-profit organisation based in Epalinges, Switzerland, which was founded in 1937 in Luxembourg.
The EGA's main activity consists of coordinating and co-organizing European amateur golf championships. It ...
(EGA) is located in Épalinges. Golf Club de Lausanne, the site of 1982 Eisenhower Trophy
The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958 Eisenhower Trophy, 1958, it is nam ...
, 1997 Ladies Swiss Open and several Swiss Amateur Championships, is also partly located in the municipality.
Notable residents
* Thomas "Loel" Guinness
Group Captain Thomas Loel Evelyn Bulkeley Guinness, (9 June 1906 – 31 December 1988) was a British politician, Royal Air Force officer, business magnate and philanthropist. He was Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath (1931–1945) ...
and Gloria Guinness lived at Villa Zanroc on Chemin de Ballègue 58.
* Dolores Guinness, Socialite
* Loel Patrick Guinness
* Jean Marie Pierre Hubert Taittinger from 1923 to 2012
* Georges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 12/13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer who created the fictional detective Jules Maigret. One of the most prolific and successful authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 ...
, from 1962 to 1973, Writer
* Ingvar Kamprad
Feodor Ingvar Kamprad (; 30 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a Swedish billionaire who founded IKEA in 1943 and grew into a multinational retail company that became the world's largest furniture seller in 2008. He moved to Switzerland w ...
, from 1976 to 2014, Founder of IKEA
IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services.
IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...
* Derek Quinlan, Businessman
* Raymond Burki, a satirical drawer for daily newspaper '' 24 Heures'' was born in Épalinges
* Jean Tschabold, Gymnast
Notes and references
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epalinges