Ponthaux (; ) is a former
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
Sarine Sarine may refer to:
* Sarine District, one of Switzerland's seven districts
*Saane/Sarine, a Swiss river
* Sarine Voltage, an American musician
*Sarine, Lebanon
Saraaine El Tahta () (also spelled Sareen, Serraine El Tahta, Saraain El Taht ...
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 ...
. On 1 January 2025 the former municipalities of
Grolley
Grolley (; ) is a former municipality in the district of Sarine in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. On 1 January 2025 the former municipalities of Grolley and Ponthaux merged to form the new municipality of Grolley-Ponthaux.
History
Gro ...
and Ponthaux merged to form the new municipality of
Grolley-Ponthaux
Grolley-Ponthaux () is a municipality in the district of Sarine in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. It was formed on 1 January 2025 by the merger of Grolley and Ponthaux. It had an official population of 2881 as of 31 December 2022.
Ge ...
.
History
Ponthaux is first mentioned in 1142 as ''Pontet''.
[
]
Geography
Ponthaux, , has an area of . Of this area, or 70.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 23.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.2% is unproductive land.[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 1.5%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 49.0% is used for growing crops and 19.6% is pastures, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.[
The municipality is located in the Sarine district. It consists of the village of Ponthaux and since the merger on 1 January 1981, the former municipality of Nierlet-les-Bois.]
accessed 4 April 2011
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 and in a Chief of the first a Cross bottony of the second between two Oak Leaves Vert.''
Demographics
Ponthaux has a population () of . , 7.3% 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 26.4%. Migration accounted for 15.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 7.9%.
accessed 11-December-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), ...
(435 or 89.1%) 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 (43 or 8.8%) and Portuguese is the third (4 or 0.8%). There are 3 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 ...
.[
, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 273 Swiss men (44.7% of the population) and 31 (5.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 287 Swiss women (47.0%) and 20 (3.3%) non-Swiss women.][Canton of Fribourg Statistics]
accessed 3 November 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 195 or about 40.0% were born in Ponthaux and lived there in 2000. There were 192 or 39.3% who were born in the same canton, while 69 or 14.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 32 or 6.6% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 29.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 9.2%.][
, there were 213 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 241 married individuals, 19 widows or widowers and 15 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 172 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household.[ There were 32 households that consist of only one person and 24 households with five or more people. , a total of 164 apartments (91.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 13 apartments (7.3%) were seasonally occupied and 2 apartments (1.1%) 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 8 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.44%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SPS which received 31.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (20.5%), the SVP (18.1%) and the FDP (6.9%).[Canton of Fribourg National Council Election of 23 October 2011 Statistics]
accessed 3 November 2011
The SPS received about the same percentage of the vote as they did in the 2007 Federal election (27.8% in 2007 vs 31.2% in 2011). The CVP lost popularity (25.6% in 2007), the SVP retained about the same popularity (16.4% in 2007) and the FDP moved from below fourth place in 2007 to fourth. A total of 191 votes were cast in this election, of which 3 or 1.6% were invalid.
Economy
, Ponthaux had an unemployment rate of 2.5%. , there were 39 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses were involved in this sector. 14 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 5 businesses in this sector. 45 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 10 businesses in this sector.[ There were 259 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.6% 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 81. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 30, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 13 of which 11 or (84.6%) were in manufacturing and 2 (15.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 38. In the tertiary sector; 16 or 42.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 5 or 13.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 13.2% were in the information industry, 4 or 10.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 10.5% were in education and 1 was in health care.
, there were 31 workers who commuted into the municipality and 200 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 6.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 67.6% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 413 or 84.6% 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 45 or 9.2% 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 was 1 member of an Orthodox church, there was 1 individual who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 13 individuals (or about 2.66% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 (or about 0.41% 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. 14 (or about 2.87% 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 4 individuals (or about 0.82% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Ponthaux about 176 or (36.1%) 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 44 or (9.0%) 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 44 who completed tertiary schooling, 72.7% were Swiss men, 20.5% were 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 53 students attending 3 classes in Ponthaux. A total of 128 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality, but 10 students attended kindergarten in a neighboring municipality. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 53 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 27 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 9 upper Secondary students and 19 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there were 3 non-university Tertiary students and 3 specialized Tertiary students who attended classes in another municipality.[
]
References
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of the canton of Fribourg