Meinier

Meinier is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.

History

Meinier is first mentioned in 1153 as ''de maniaco''. Around 1344 it was mentioned as ''Meignier''.

Geography

Meinier has an area, , of . Of this area, or 80.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 3.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 14.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.1% 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 6.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.3%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, 1.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 57.8% is used for growing crops and 5.7% is pastures, while 17.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.

The municipality is located on the left bank of Lake Geneva. It consists of the hamlets of Meinier, Carre d'Amont, Carre d'Aval (Le Carre), Compois, Essert and Corsinge.

The municipality of Meinier consists of the sub-sections or villages of Meinier - Pallanterie, Meinier - Essert, Meinier - village, Covéry, Corsinge, Compois, Carre-d'Aval and Carre-d'Amont.

Demographics

Meinier has a population () of . , 18.8% 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 (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 8.6%. It has changed at a rate of 1.5% due to migration and at a rate of 6.2% due to births and deaths.
accessed 27-April-2011

Most of the population () speaks French (1,461 or 86.1%), with English being second most common (68 or 4.0%) and German being third (62 or 3.7%). There are 24 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh.

, the gender distribution of the population was 48.2% male and 51.8% female. The population was made up of 726 Swiss men (38.7% of the population) and 178 (9.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 781 Swiss women (41.7%) and 189 (10.1%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Geneva Statistical Office
''Population résidante du canton de Genève, selon l'origine et le sexe, par commune, en mars 2011'' accessed 18 April 2011 Of the population in the municipality 425 or about 25.1% were born in Meinier and lived there in 2000. There were 490 or 28.9% who were born in the same canton, while 282 or 16.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 440 or 25.9% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 14 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 6 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 8 while the foreign population increased by 1. There were 7 Swiss men and 4 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 3 non-Swiss men and 3 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 a decrease of 9 and the non-Swiss population increased by 17 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.4%.

The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 12%.

, there were 683 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 827 married individuals, 69 widows or widowers and 117 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

, there were 691 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 217 households that consist of only one person and 58 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 714 households that answered this question, 30.4% were households made up of just one person and there were 5 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 186 married couples without children, 213 married couples with children There were 61 single parents with a child or children. There were 9 households that were made up of unrelated people and 23 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 153 single family homes (or 52.6% of the total) out of a total of 291 inhabited buildings. There were 77 multi-family buildings (26.5%), along with 43 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (14.8%) and 18 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (6.2%). Of the single family homes 50 were built before 1919, while 11 were built between 1990 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011

there were 718 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 214. There were 21 single room apartments and 218 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 656 apartments (91.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 55 apartments (7.7%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (1.0%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.25%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)
id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)
ImageSize = width:1200 height:210
PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:1700
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1412 from:start till:104
bar:1412 at:114 fontsize:S text: " 26 Hearths" shift:(8,5)
bar:1443 from:start till:140
bar:1443 at:175 fontsize:S text: "35 Hearths" shift:(8,5)
bar:1481 from:start till:140
bar:1481 at:250 fontsize:S text: "35 Hearths" shift:(8,5)
bar:1518 from:start till:160
bar:1518 at:325 fontsize:S text: "40 Hearths" shift:(8,5)
bar:1816 from:start till:503 text:"503"
bar:1850 from:start till:582 text:"582"
bar:1860 from:start till:476 text:"476"
bar:1870 from:start till:446 text:"446"
bar:1880 from:start till:474 text:"474"
bar:1888 from:start till:487 text:"487"
bar:1900 from:start till:500 text:"500"
bar:1910 from:start till:435 text:"435"
bar:1920 from:start till:430 text:"430"
bar:1930 from:start till:509 text:"509"
bar:1941 from:start till:513 text:"513"
bar:1950 from:start till:490 text:"490"
bar:1960 from:start till:581 text:"581"
bar:1970 from:start till:1288 text:"1,288"
bar:1980 from:start till:1390 text:"1,390"
bar:1990 from:start till:1546 text:"1,546"
bar:2000 from:start till:1696 text:"1,696"

Heritage sites of national significance

The Ruins of Rouelbeau Castle is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire hamlet of Carre is listed in the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 21.76% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party (17.58%), the SP (16.63%) and the Green Party (13.71%). In the federal election, a total of 578 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 50.4%.

In the 2009 Grand Conseil election, there were a total of 1,158 registered voters of which 499 (43.1%) voted. The most popular party in the municipality for this election was the Libéral with 18.8% of the ballots. In the canton-wide election they received the highest proportion of votes. The second most popular party was the PDC (with 13.5%), they were fifth in the canton-wide election, while the third most popular party was the Les Verts (with 12.9%), they were second in the canton-wide election.Canton of Geneva Statistical Office
Election Results from multiple spreadsheets accessed 18 April 2011

For the 2009 Conseil d'Etat election, there were a total of 1,159 registered voters of which 629 (54.3%) voted.

In 2011, all the municipalities held local elections, and in Meinier there were 15 spots open on the municipal council. There were a total of 1,365 registered voters of which 651 (47.7%) voted. Out of the 651 votes, there were 8 blank votes, 7 null or unreadable votes and 92 votes with a name that was not on the list.

Economy

, Meinier had an unemployment rate of 3.5%. , there were 76 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 19 businesses involved in this sector. 268 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 39 businesses in this sector. 317 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 48 businesses in this sector. There were 851 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.6% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 598. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 64, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 257 of which 127 or (49.4%) were in manufacturing and 130 (50.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 277. In the tertiary sector; 54 or 19.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 55 or 19.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 33 or 11.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 4 or 1.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 18 or 6.5% were in education and 72 or 26.0% were in health care.

, there were 180 workers who commuted into the municipality and 679 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 21.1% of the workforce coming into Meinier are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 12% used public transportation to get to work, and 65.5% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 759 or 44.8% were Roman Catholic, while 352 or 20.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 18 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.06% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 41 individuals (or about 2.42% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 8 individuals (or about 0.47% of the population) who were Jewish, and 20 (or about 1.18% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 person who was Buddhist and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 354 (or about 20.87% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 140 individuals (or about 8.25% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Meinier about 558 or (32.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 371 or (21.9%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule''). Of the 371 who completed tertiary schooling, 41.2% were Swiss men, 35.3% were Swiss women, 14.0% were non-Swiss men and 9.4% were non-Swiss women.

During the 2009-2010 school year there were a total of 369 students in the Meinier school system. The education system in the Canton of Geneva allows young children to attend two years of non-obligatory Kindergarten. During that school year, there were 34 children who were in a pre-kindergarten class. The canton's school system provides two years of non-mandatory kindergarten and requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In Meinier there were 45 students in kindergarten or primary school and 6 students were in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 45 lower secondary students who attended school in Meinier. There were 74 upper secondary students from the municipality along with 12 students who were in a professional, non-university track program. An additional 55 students attended a private school.Canton of Geneva Statistical Office
Elèves résidant dans le canton de Genève, selon le niveau d'enseignement, par commune de domicile accessed 18 April 2011

, there were 21 students in Meinier who came from another municipality, while 196 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website

*

{{Authority control

Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Geneva
Municipalities of the canton of Geneva