Le Pâquier (; frp, Le Pâquiér ) is a
municipality in the district of
Gruyère in the
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative division terminology
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and ent ...
of
Fribourg in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
History
Le Pâquier is first mentioned in 1637 as ''Pasquier''.
[
]
Geography
Le Pâquier has an area, , of . Of this area, or 68.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 17.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 13.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes 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 8.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.4%. Out of the forested land, 14.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.6% is used for growing crops and 50.1% is pastures and 12.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
The municipality is located in the Gruyère district, on the northern foot of ]Moléson
The Moléson (French: ''Le Moléson'') () is a mountain of the Swiss Prealps, overlooking the region of Gruyères in the canton of Fribourg. It lies at the northern end of the chain between Lake Geneva and the valley of the Sarine.
The summit ...
mountain.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Azure, three Trefoils slipped issuant from Coupeaux of the same.''
Demographics
Le Pâquier has a population () of . , 9.8% 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 16.7%. Migration accounted for 13.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.1%.
accessed 28-November-2011French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
(871 or 93.4%) as their first language, German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
is the second most common (37 or 4.0%) and Portuguese is the third (11 or 1.2%). There is 1 person who speaks Italian.[
, the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. The population was made up of 462 Swiss men (43.0% of the population) and 68 (6.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 491 Swiss women (45.7%) and 53 (4.9%) non-Swiss women.][Canton of Fribourg Statistics]
accessed 3 November 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 266 or about 28.5% were born in Le Pâquier and lived there in 2000. There were 412 or 44.2% who were born in the same canton, while 139 or 14.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 81 or 8.7% 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 57.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13%.][
, there were 438 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 430 married individuals, 35 widows or widowers and 30 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 320 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household.[ There were 82 households that consist of only one person and 40 households with five or more people. , a total of 311 apartments (79.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 67 apartments (17.0%) were seasonally occupied and 15 apartments (3.8%) 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 3.7 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.45%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 28.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (21.5%), the SVP (20.3%) and the FDP (12.1%).[Canton of Fribourg National Council Election of 23 October 2011 Statistics]
accessed 3 November 2011
The SPS improved their position in Le Pâquier rising to first, from second in 2007 (with 24.4%) The CVP moved from first in 2007 (with 31.9%) to second in 2011, the SVP retained about the same popularity (19.6% in 2007) and the FDP retained about the same popularity (13.9% in 2007). A total of 395 votes were cast in this election, of which 4 or 1.0% were invalid.
Economy
, Le Pâquier had an unemployment rate of 2.6%. , there were 40 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 83 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 5 businesses in this sector. 56 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 18 businesses in this sector.[ There were 428 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.3% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 155. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 32, of which 28 were in agriculture and 4 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 82 of which 9 or (11.0%) were in manufacturing and 72 (87.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 41. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 31.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 7.3% were in the information industry, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 4.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 19.5% were in education.
, there were 45 workers who commuted into the municipality and 334 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 7.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 7.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.3% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 754 or 80.8% were Roman Catholic, while 74 or 7.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 6 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.64% of the population), and there were 8 individuals (or about 0.86% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 4 (or about 0.43% of the population) who were Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic. There were 9 individuals who were Buddhist and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 44 (or about 4.72% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
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 36 individuals (or about 3.86% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Le Pâquier about 293 or (31.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 118 or (12.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule
A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...
''). Of the 118 who completed tertiary schooling, 62.7% were Swiss men, 26.3% were Swiss women, 6.8% were non-Swiss men and 4.2% were non-Swiss women.[
The Canton of Fribourg school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, 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.Chart of the education system in Canton Fribourg]
During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 132 students attending 8 classes in Le Pâquier. A total of 252 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 23 students in the municipality. The municipality had 6 primary classes and 109 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 46 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 31 upper Secondary students and 42 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there were 2 specialized Tertiary students who attended classes in another municipality.[
, there were 5 students in Le Pâquier who came from another municipality, while 75 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paquier, Fribourg
Municipalities of the canton of Fribourg