Sorens (, ) 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
Gruyère in the
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative divisions
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and entertainment
* Canton (band), an It ...
of
Fribourg
or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...
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 ...
.
History
Sorens is first mentioned around 974-75 as ''Sotringus''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Soring'', however, that name is no longer used.
[
]
Geography
Sorens has an area, , of . Of this area, or 64.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 26.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.9% 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 4.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.8%. Out of the forested land, 24.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 8.1% is used for growing crops and 49.0% is pastures and 7.1% is used for alpine pastures.[
The municipality is located in the Gruyère district, near the ]Bulle
Bulle (; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Gruyère (district), Gruyère in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Fribourg (canton), Fribourg in Switzerland. In January 2006 Bulle incorporated the formerly inde ...
-Fribourg
or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...
road on the eastern slope of the Gibloux.
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 ''Pally of Six Argent and Gules overall a Roebuck salient proper.''
Demographics
Sorens has a population () of . , 6.6% 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 (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 19.5%. Migration accounted for 18.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.1%.
accessed 30-November-2011French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
(800 or 95.7%) as their first language, German
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 ...
is the second most common (24 or 2.9%) and Portuguese is the third (3 or 0.4%). There are 2 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 1 person who speaks Romansh.[
, the population was 52.5% male and 47.5% female. The population was made up of 470 Swiss men (49.0% of the population) and 34 (3.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 429 Swiss women (44.7%) and 27 (2.8%) non-Swiss women.][Canton of Fribourg Statistics]
accessed 3 November 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 317 or about 37.9% were born in Sorens and lived there in 2000. There were 297 or 35.5% who were born in the same canton, while 86 or 10.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 68 or 8.1% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 55.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19%.][
, there were 360 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 373 married individuals, 60 widows or widowers and 43 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 310 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.[ There were 84 households that consist of only one person and 32 households with five or more people. , a total of 293 apartments (85.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 41 apartments (12.0%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (2.1%) were empty.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.2 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.02%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Points of interest
* Gibloux Radio Tower
Gibloux Radio Tower is built on the 1204 metre Le Gibloux mountain above Sorens, west of Fribourg, Switzerland. The concrete tower has a height of . The observation deck is at .
References
Towers completed in 1994
Fribourg
Towers in Swit ...
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 29.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (20.5%), the SP (17.4%) and the SVP (15.6%).[Canton of Fribourg National Council Election of 23 October 2011 Statistics]
accessed 3 November 2011
The FDP received about the same percentage of the vote as they did in the 2007 Federal election (32.6% in 2007 vs 29.9% in 2011). The CVP retained about the same popularity (24.9% in 2007), the SPS moved from fourth in 2007 (with 15.5%) to third and the SVP moved from third in 2007 (with 17.0%) to fourth. A total of 390 votes were cast in this election, of which 4 or 1.0% were invalid.
Economy
, Sorens had an unemployment rate of 2.8%. , there were 61 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 23 businesses involved in this sector. 40 people were employed in the secondary sector
In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...
and there were 7 businesses in this sector. 170 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 24 businesses in this sector.[ There were 396 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.4% 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 205. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 44, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 31 of which 22 or (71.0%) were in manufacturing and 9 (29.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 130. In the tertiary sector; 66 or 50.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 3.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 14 or 10.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, 5 or 3.8% were in education and 33 or 25.4% were in health care.
, there were 71 workers who commuted into the municipality and 272 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 2.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 74% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 720 or 86.1% 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 33 or 3.9% 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 4 individuals (or about 0.48% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was 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 there was 1 individual who was 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 2 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 ...
and 1 person who was 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 ...
. 35 (or about 4.19% 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 41 individuals (or about 4.90% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Sorens about 230 or (27.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education
Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education.
Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...
, and 72 or (8.6%) 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 72 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.9% were Swiss men, 27.8% were Swiss women, 6.9% were non-Swiss men and 8.3% were non-Swiss women.[
The Canton of Fribourg school system provides one year of non-obligatory ]Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
, 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 (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 is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...
.Chart of the education system in Canton Fribourg
During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 82 students attending 4 classes in Sorens. A total of 166 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 20 students in the municipality. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 62 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 31 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 14 upper Secondary students and 29 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there were 5 non-university Tertiary students and 4 specialized Tertiary students who attended classes in another municipality.[
]
References
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Fribourg