Grens

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

History

Grens is first mentioned around 1160-89 as ''de Grens''. In 1164 it was mentioned as ''Graiens'' and in 1212 as ''Granz''.

Geography

Grens has an area, , of . Of this area, or 89.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 2.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.4% 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 4.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 72.3% is used for growing crops and 4.7% is pastures, while 12.1% is used for orchards or vine crops.

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

The municipality is located in the middle of a plateau between Nyon and the southern base of the Jura Mountains. It consists of the linear village of Grens.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Pally of Six Or and Azure, overall two Keys Gules in saltire.''

Demographics

Grens has a population () of . , 17.5% 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 19.5%. It has changed at a rate of 7% due to migration and at a rate of 12.9% due to births and deaths.
accessed 21-July-2011

Most of the population () speaks French (261 or 82.6%), with English being second most common (26 or 8.2%) and German being third (15 or 4.7%). There is 1 person who speaks Italian.

The age distribution, , in Grens is; 52 children or 14.5% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 61 teenagers or 17.0% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 23 people or 6.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 47 people or 13.1% are between 30 and 39, 79 people or 22.1% are between 40 and 49, and 29 people or 8.1% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 37 people or 10.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 22 people or 6.1% are between 70 and 79, there are 5 people or 1.4% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 3 people or 0.8% who are 90 and older.Canton of Vaud Statistical Office
accessed 29 April 2011

, there were 135 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 163 married individuals, 9 widows or widowers and 9 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

, there were 110 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household. There were 21 households that consist of only one person and 13 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 114 households that answered this question, 18.4% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 29 married couples without children, 54 married couples with children There were 4 single parents with a child or children. There were 2 households that were made up of unrelated people and 4 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 46 single family homes (or 56.8% of the total) out of a total of 81 inhabited buildings. There were 12 multi-family buildings (14.8%), along with 22 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (27.2%) and 1 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (1.2%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011

, a total of 105 apartments (89.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 9 apartments (7.7%) were seasonally occupied and 3 apartments (2.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 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:1764 from:start till:119 text:"119"
bar:1850 from:start till:130 text:"130"
bar:1860 from:start till:119 text:"119"
bar:1870 from:start till:123 text:"123"
bar:1880 from:start till:148 text:"148"
bar:1888 from:start till:127 text:"127"
bar:1900 from:start till:155 text:"155"
bar:1910 from:start till:138 text:"138"
bar:1920 from:start till:149 text:"149"
bar:1930 from:start till:133 text:"133"
bar:1941 from:start till:136 text:"136"
bar:1950 from:start till:149 text:"149"
bar:1960 from:start till:139 text:"139"
bar:1970 from:start till:166 text:"166"
bar:1980 from:start till:193 text:"193"
bar:1990 from:start till:223 text:"223"
bar:2000 from:start till:316 text:"316"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 20.92% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (18.68%), the FDP (16.15%) and the Green Party (15.56%). In the federal election, a total of 101 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 51.3%.

Economy

, Grens had an unemployment rate of 4.2%. , there were 31 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 49 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 7 businesses in this sector. 33 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 6 businesses in this sector. There were 157 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 37.6% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 91. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 19, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 44 of which 21 or (47.7%) were in manufacturing and 23 (52.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 28. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 21 or 75.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 2 or 7.1% were technical professionals or scientists, and 3 or 10.7% were in health care.

, there were 38 workers who commuted into the municipality and 111 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 15.8% of the workforce coming into Grens are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 10.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 66 or 20.9% were Roman Catholic, while 131 or 41.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.63% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.95% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 46 individuals (or about 14.56% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 6 (or about 1.90% of the population) who were Islamic. 65 (or about 20.57% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 15 individuals (or about 4.75% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Grens about 104 or (32.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 67 or (21.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule''). Of the 67 who completed tertiary schooling, 44.8% were Swiss men, 31.3% were Swiss women, 13.4% were non-Swiss men and 10.4% were non-Swiss women.

In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 56 students in the Grens 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 31 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 25 students in those schools.Canton of Vaud Statistical Office - Scol. obligatoire/filières de transition
accessed 2 May 2011

, there were 4 students in Grens who came from another municipality, while 48 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{Authority control

Municipalities of the canton of Vaud