Semsales

Semsales (; frp, Semsâles ) is a municipality in the district of Veveyse in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland.

History

Semsales is first mentioned about 1100 as ''septem salis''.

Geography

Semsales has an area of . Of this area, or 46.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 48.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.5% 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 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 45.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.7% is used for growing crops and 20.3% is pastures and 20.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Veveyse district, at the foot of the Fribourg pre-alpine mountains (Niremont, Les Alpettes). It lies along an important transportation axis including; the Bulle-Châtel-Saint-Denis road, the A12 motorway and the Bulle-Palézieux rail line. It consists of the village of Semsales and, since 1 January 1968, the former municipality of La Rougève.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Azure two Columns issuant from as many Mounts all Argent encircled with seven Mullet of Five three and two and two.''

Demographics

Semsales has a population () of . , 10.4% 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 13%. Migration accounted for 9.8%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.3%.
accessed 19-December-2011

Most of the population () speaks French (956 or 93.8%) as their first language, German is the second most common (29 or 2.8%) and Portuguese is the third (9 or 0.9%). There are 7 people who speak Italian. There are also 6 people who speak English.

, the population was 49.2% male and 50.8% female. The population was made up of 489 Swiss men (43.3% of the population) and 67 (5.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 521 Swiss women (46.1%) and 53 (4.7%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Fribourg Statistics
accessed 3 November 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 457 or about 44.8% were born in Semsales and lived there in 2000. There were 260 or 25.5% who were born in the same canton, while 171 or 16.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 80 or 7.9% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.7%.

, there were 410 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 480 married individuals, 72 widows or widowers and 57 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

, there were 407 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 114 households that consist of only one person and 28 households with five or more people. , a total of 394 apartments (81.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 69 apartments (14.3%) were seasonally occupied and 20 apartments (4.1%) 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 12.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.19%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:1850 from:start till:754 text:"754"
bar:1860 from:start till:876 text:"876"
bar:1870 from:start till:921 text:"921"
bar:1880 from:start till:878 text:"878"
bar:1888 from:start till:888 text:"888"
bar:1900 from:start till:981 text:"981"
bar:1910 from:start till:1001 text:"1,001"
bar:1920 from:start till:1030 text:"1,030"
bar:1930 from:start till:931 text:"931"
bar:1941 from:start till:917 text:"917"
bar:1950 from:start till:915 text:"915"
bar:1960 from:start till:824 text:"824"
bar:1970 from:start till:829 text:"829"
bar:1980 from:start till:866 text:"866"
bar:1990 from:start till:951 text:"951"
bar:2000 from:start till:1019 text:"1,019"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 26.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (23.4%), the CVP (20.4%) and the FDP (17.2%).Canton of Fribourg National Council Election of 23 October 2011 Statistics
accessed 3 November 2011

The SVP improved their position in Semsales rising to first, from second in 2007 (with 22.8%) The SPS moved from third in 2007 (with 20.8%) to second in 2011, the CVP moved from first in 2007 (with 29.2%) to third and the FDP retained about the same popularity (20.6% in 2007). A total of 398 votes were cast in this election, of which 7 or 1.8% were invalid.

Economy

, Semsales had an unemployment rate of 2.9%. , there were 75 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 26 businesses involved in this sector. 114 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 21 businesses in this sector. 110 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 28 businesses in this sector. There were 542 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.1% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 251. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 57, of which 48 were in agriculture and 9 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 109 of which 58 or (53.2%) were in manufacturing and 51 (46.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 85. In the tertiary sector; 41 or 48.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 5 or 5.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 11 or 12.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 3.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 2.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 9.4% were in education and 3 or 3.5% were in health care.

, there were 83 workers who commuted into the municipality and 378 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 7.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 71.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 817 or 80.2% were Roman Catholic, while 80 or 7.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 5 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.49% of the population), and there were 12 individuals (or about 1.18% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 8 (or about 0.79% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 person who was Hindu and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 58 (or about 5.69% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 41 individuals (or about 4.02% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Semsales about 316 or (31.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 84 or (8.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule''). Of the 84 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.1% were Swiss men, 21.4% were Swiss women, 8.3% were non-Swiss men and 7.1% 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 135 students attending 7 classes in Semsales. A total of 201 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 31 students in the municipality. The municipality had 5 primary classes and 104 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 37 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 6 upper Secondary students and 23 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there was one specialized Tertiary student who attended classes in another municipality.

, there were 34 students in Semsales who came from another municipality, while 77 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Notably, Semsales has a large percentage of youth who chose to attend post-secondary schools overseas in Canada. One such resident, Joane Maillard, has gone on to be a "Nova Scotia future women leaders" award winner at the Gerald Schwartz School of Business.

References

External links

Official website

{{Authority control

Municipalities of the canton of Fribourg