Gruyère ( ; ) is one of seven

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

of the canton of

Fribourg or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...

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 ...

. It has a population of (as of ). Its capital is

Bulle Bulle (; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Gruyère (district), Gruyère in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Fribourg (canton), Fribourg in Switzerland. In January 2006 Bulle incorporated the formerly inde ...

Municipalities

Mergers and name changes

* On 26 January 1970 the former municipalities of Pont-en-Ogoz and Villars-d'Avry merged to form the new municipality of Le Bry. * On 1 January 2001 the former municipalities of Maules, Rueyres-Treyfayes, Romanens and Sâles (Gruyère) merged to form the new municipality of Sâles. The former municipality of Vuippens merged into Marsens * On 1 January 2002 the former municipalities of Albeuve, Montbovon, Neirivue and Lessoc merged to form the new municipality of Haut-Intyamon. * On 1 January 2003 the former municipalities of Avry-devant-Pont, Gumefens and Le Bry merged to form the new municipality of Pont-en-Ogoz. * On 1 January 2004 the former municipalities of Villars-sous-Mont, Estavannens and Enney merged to form the new municipality of Bas-Intyamon. * On 1 January 2006 the former municipality of Villarbeney merged into Botterens, the municipality of Bulle and La Tour-de-Trême merged into the municipality of

. * On 1 January 2011 the former municipality of Villarvolard merged into Corbières.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011 * On 1 January 2014 the former municipalities of

Cerniat Cerniat (; ) is a former Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Gruyère (district), Gruyère in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Fribourg (canton), Fribourg in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014 the former municipaliti ...

and

Charmey Charmey (; ) is a former Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Gruyère (district), Gruyère in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Fribourg (canton), Fribourg in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014 the former municipalitie ...

merged into the new municipality of Val-de-Charmey.

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 district

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 ''Gules, a Crane rising Argent.''

Demographics

Gruyère has a population () of . Most of the population () speaks French (33,578 or 88.2%) as their first language,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

is the second most common (1,929 or 5.1%) and Portuguese is the third (939 or 2.5%). There are 247 people who speak

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and 11 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 49.5% male and 50.5% female. The population was made up of 17,510 Swiss men (38.5% of the population) and 5,010 (11.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 18,688 Swiss women (41.1%) and 4,294 (9.4%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Fribourg Statistics
accessed 3 November 2011 Of the population in the district, 12,654 or about 33.2% were born in Gruyère and lived there in 2000. There were 13,900 or 36.5% who were born in the same canton, while 4,300 or 11.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 5,784 or 15.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 16,301 people who were single and never married in the district. There were 17,680 married individuals, 2,347 widows or widowers and 1,742 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 There were 4,549 households that consist of only one person and 1,272 households with five or more people. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:48000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:8000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:1600 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:17162 text:"17,162" bar:1860 from:start till:18200 text:"18,200" bar:1870 from:start till:19288 text:"19,288" bar:1880 from:start till:20415 text:"20,415" bar:1888 from:start till:21342 text:"21,342" bar:1900 from:start till:23111 text:"23,111" bar:1910 from:start till:25279 text:"25,279" bar:1920 from:start till:27372 text:"27,372" bar:1930 from:start till:25530 text:"25,530" bar:1941 from:start till:26107 text:"26,107" bar:1950 from:start till:26611 text:"26,611" bar:1960 from:start till:26061 text:"26,061" bar:1970 from:start till:28017 text:"28,017" bar:1980 from:start till:27905 text:"27,905" bar:1990 from:start till:33080 text:"33,080" bar:2000 from:start till:38070 text:"38,070" bar:2010 from:start till:46415 text:"46,415"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 27.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (22.0%), the CVP (20.3%) and the FDP (15.6%).Canton of Fribourg National Council Election of 23 October 2011 Statistics
accessed 3 November 2011 The SPS improved their position in Gruyère rising to first, from second in 2007 (with 22.5%) The SVP moved from third in 2007 (with 22.0%) to second in 2011, the CVP moved from first in 2007 (with 28.9%) to third and the FDP retained about the same popularity (16.5% in 2007). A total of 14,036 votes were cast in this election, of which 277 or 2.0% were invalid.

Religion

From the , 30,742 or 80.8% 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 2,044 or 5.4% 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 151 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.40% of the population), there were 22 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 592 individuals (or about 1.56% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 14 individuals (or about 0.04% 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 1,223 (or about 3.21% 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 92 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 ...

, 21 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 29 individuals who belonged to another church. 1,892 (or about 4.97% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

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 1,527 individuals (or about 4.01% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Gruyère about 11,416 or (30.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 3,608 or (9.5%) 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 3,608 who completed tertiary schooling, 59.7% were Swiss men, 25.0% were Swiss women, 9.2% were non-Swiss men and 6.1% were non-Swiss women. The Canton of Fribourg school system provides eight years of Primary school, with the new HarmoS system. 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 Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

.Chart of the education system in Canton Fribourg
During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 9,029 students attending 485 classes in Gruyère. A total of 8,273 students from the district attended any school, either in the district or outside of it. There were 40 kindergarten classes with a total of 706 students in the district. The district had 171 primary classes and 3,429 students. During the same year, there were 90 lower secondary classes with a total of 1,739 students. There were 81 vocational upper Secondary classes and were 52 upper Secondary classes, with 978 upper Secondary students and 1,169 vocational upper Secondary students The district had 23 specialized Tertiary classes and there were 28 non-university Tertiary classes, with 838 non-university Tertiary students and 170 specialized Tertiary students.