Gland () is a

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

Nyon Nyon (; historically German language, German: or and Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometer ...

in the canton of

Vaud Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...

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 ...

. The city also is home to the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

and WWF headquarters.

History

Gland is known to have been a prehistoric settlement. During the

Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

a farm called ''Villa Glanis'' was there. Until the 1960s, Gland was merely a small farming village (essentially

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

s and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

). Gland is first mentioned around 994–1049 CE as ''de Glans''. In 1923 Gland provided the venue for the European Division meeting of the Seventh-day Adventists, where the German Adventist leaders said they regarded whether to serve as combatant in times of war was a matter which should be left to the conscience of individual members of their church. In the 1930s, the Toblerone line, a defensive line, was built along the western edge of Gland, stretching from Lac Léman towards the Jura mountains. Its purpose was to stop a

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory (country subdivision), territory controlled by another similar entity, ...

from the west. The opening of the highway linking

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

with

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

brought many

commuter Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

s to this once-quiet place. It is only since the mid-1980s that Gland has started to grow into a town with its own businesses and shopping centers.

Geography

Gland has an area, , of . Of this area, or 45.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 14.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 40.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data Retrieved 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 18.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.9%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 3.5% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 6.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 29.0% is used for growing crops and 5.0% is pastures, while 11.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality was part of the

Nyon District Nyon District is a district in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. The seat of the district is the city of Nyon. Geography Nyon has an area, , of . Of this area, or 42.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 44.7% is forested. Of the res ...

until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Gland became part of the new district of Nyon.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
Retrieved 4 April 2011 The municipality is located between

Lake Geneva Lake Geneva is a deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France. It is one of the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lakes in Western Europe and the largest on the course of the Rhône. Sixty percent () ...

and the Côte region.

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 ''Argent, from a hill Vert an Oak-tree of the same fructed Or.'' The French word 'Gland' means 'acorn'. Hence the prominence of acorns in the town's coat of arms.

Demographics

Gland has a population () of . , 32.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
Retrieved 19 June 2010 During the 10-year period 1999–2009 the population increased at a rate of 21.4%: 9.5% due to migration and 12% due to births and deaths.
Retrieved 21 July 2011 Most of the population () speaks French (7,677 or 79.4%), with German being second most common (628 or 6.5%) and English being third (346 or 3.6%). There are 253 people who speak Italian and 7 people who speak Romansh. The age distribution, , in Gland is; 1,464 children or 13.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 1,523 teenagers or 13.5% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 1,424 people or 12.6% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,973 people or 17.5% are between 30 and 39, 2,067 people or 18.3% are between 40 and 49, and 1,347 people or 11.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 928 people or 8.2% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 385 people or 3.4% are between 70 and 79, there are 164 people or 1.5% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 25 people or 0.2% who are 90 and older.Canton of Vaud Statistical Office
Retrieved 29 April 2011 , there were 4,219 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 4,589 married individuals, 258 widows or widowers and 597 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
Retrieved 2 February 2011 , there were 3,924 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 1,208 households that consist of only one person and 241 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 4,005 households that answered this question, 30.2% were households made up of just one person and there were 7 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 940 married couples without children, 1,417 married couples with children. There were 298 single parents with a child or children. There were 54 households that were made up of unrelated people and 81 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 521 single family homes (or 49.0% of the total) out of a total of 1,064 inhabited buildings. There were 350 multi-family buildings (32.9%), along with 119 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (11.2%) and 74 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (7.0%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
Retrieved 28 January 2011 , a total of 3,773 apartments (89.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 392 apartments (9.3%) were seasonally occupied and 57 apartments (1.4%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 4.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.18%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:9700 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1900 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:380 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:324 text:"324" bar:1850 from:start till:425 text:"425" bar:1860 from:start till:484 text:"484" bar:1870 from:start till:566 text:"566" bar:1880 from:start till:587 text:"587" bar:1888 from:start till:600 text:"600" bar:1900 from:start till:676 text:"676" bar:1910 from:start till:810 text:"810" bar:1920 from:start till:942 text:"942" bar:1930 from:start till:992 text:"992" bar:1941 from:start till:998 text:"998" bar:1950 from:start till:1180 text:"1,180" bar:1960 from:start till:1545 text:"1,545" bar:1970 from:start till:2404 text:"2,404" bar:1980 from:start till:4906 text:"4,906" bar:1990 from:start till:7109 text:"7,109" bar:2000 from:start till:9663 text:"9,663"

Heritage sites of national significance

The private house "La Villa a Rajada", designed in 1961 by the architectural collaboration of Jakob and Christian Hunziker with Robert Frei, with sculptures by Henri Presset and ceramics by Philippe Lamberoy, along with its outbuildings and land, are listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 21.38% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (20.4%), the Green Party (13.66%) and the FDP (13.63%). In the federal election, a total of 2,221 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 39.5%.

Economy

Since it is located halfway between the cities of

and

, many international companies and organizations have offices in Gland, among others

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

(International Union for Conservation of Nature), the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...

and

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

. The online brokerage and bank, Swissquote, has its headquarters in Gland. , Gland had an unemployment rate of 5.5%. , there were 83 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 14 businesses involved in this sector. 838 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 120 businesses in this sector. 3,857 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 403 businesses in this sector. There were 5,302 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.7% 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 4,092. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 44, of which 42 were in agriculture and 2 were in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 794 of which 410 or (51.6%) were in manufacturing, 24 or (3.0%) were in mining and 313 (39.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 3,254. In the tertiary sector; 1,118 or 34.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 80 or 2.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 156 or 4.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 106 or 3.3% were in the information industry, 243 or 7.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 157 or 4.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 209 or 6.4% were in education and 336 or 10.3% were in health care. , there were 2,833 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,872 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 12.2% of the workforce coming into Gland are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.1% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 18.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 3,565 or 36.9% 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 2,943 or 30.5% 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 were 82 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.85% of the population), there were 10 individuals (or about 0.10% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 970 individuals (or about 10.04% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 29 individuals (or about 0.30% of the population) who were

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, and 286 (or about 2.96% 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. There were 25 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, 23 individuals who were

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

and 20 individuals who belonged to another church. 1,656 (or about 17.14% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic 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 519 individuals (or about 5.37% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Gland about 3,413 or (35.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,620 or (16.8%) 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 1,620 who completed tertiary schooling, 43.1% were Swiss men, 25.1% were Swiss women, 17.2% were non-Swiss men and 14.6% were non-Swiss women. In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 1,573 students in the Gland school district. In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts. 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 A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

program requires students to attend for four years. There were 830 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 701 students in those schools. There were also 42 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.Canton of Vaud Statistical Office - Scol. obligatoire/filières de transition
Retrieved 2 May 2011 , there were 272 students in Gland who came from another municipality, while 451 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Gland is home to the ''Bibl. scolaire et communale de Gland'' library. The library has () 22,346 books or other media, and loaned out 41,248 items in the same year. It was open a total of 251 days with average of 51 hours per week during that year. The La Côte International School, an international school, was previously in Vich, near Gland.La Côte International School
(). École Riviera Schools. April 15, 2012. Retrieved on March 6, 2016. "En Clarens - Vich Route de l'Etraz 60 1196 Gland"

Sport

Gland is home to the football team FC Gland. They currently play in the fifth level of the Swiss Football League, in the Association Cantonale Vaudoise de Football (ACVF).

Notable people

* Bert Beverly Beach (1928–2022) – a retired American Adventist theologian, university teacher, author and philanthropist *

Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to and from to . Schumacher won a record-setting seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, tied by Lewis Hamilton in ...

(born 1969) – seven-time

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

World ChampionPolice is guarding the villa of Michael Schumacher - ee24.com
Retrieved 12 September 2014 * Mick Schumacher (born 1999) – Formula One racing driver, son of Michael Schumacher

References

External links

Official website of the Town of Gland

The Toblerone Trail
* {{Authority control Cities in Switzerland Populated places on Lake Geneva