Assens, Switzerland
Assens is a municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History. Assens is first mentioned in 1228 as "Ascens". The community decided to merge their commune with Malapalud, with effect from 1 January 2009. On 1 July 2021 the municipality of Bioley-Orjulaz merged into Assens. Geography. Assens has an area, , of . Of this area, or 79.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 11.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built  up area, housing and buildings made up 4.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.2%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 66.5% is used for growing crops and 11.0% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality was part of the Échallens District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Assens became part of the new district of Gros-de-Vaud. The municipality is located on the Lausanne-Échallens street. On  1 January 2009 the former municipality of Malapalud merged into the municipality of Assens, which kept the name Assens. Coat of arms. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Vert, in base a Garb, in chief two Crosses bottony, all of Or." Demographics. Assens has a population () of . , 10.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 25.4%. It has changed at a rate of 16.7% due to migration and at a rate of 8.7% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks  French (707 or 91.8%), with German being second most common (36 or 4.7%) and Italian being third (8 or 1.0%). Of the population in the municipality 215 or about 27.9% were born in Assens and lived there in 2000. There were 319 or 41.4% who were born in the same canton, while 135 or 17.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 88 or 11.4% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 9 live births to Swiss citizens and were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the  foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 4 non-Swiss men who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 7 and the non-Swiss population remained the same. This represents a population growth rate of 0.8%. The age distribution, , in Assens is; 130 children or 13.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 132 teenagers or 13.2% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult  population, 114 people or 11.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 141 people or 14.1% are between 30 and 39, 166 people or 16.6% are between 40 and 49, and 127 people or 12.7% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 104 people or 10.4% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 61 people or 6.1% are between 70 and 79, there are 21 people or 2.1% who are between 80 and 89, and there is 1 person who is 90 and older. , there were 319 people who were single  and never married in the municipality. There were 395 married individuals, 24 widows or widowers and 32 individuals who are divorced. , there were 303 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 51 households that consist of only one person and 29 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 291 households that answered this question, 17.5% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 100 married couples without children, 111 married couples with children There were 16 single parents with a  child or children. There were 3 households that were made up of unrelated people and 10 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. The historical population is given in the following chart: Politics. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 21.18% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (20.72%), the SP (16.27%) and the FDP (13.04%). In the federal election, a total of 271 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.3%. Economy. , Assens had an unemployment rate of 2.4 %. , there were 45 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 15 businesses involved in this sector. 48 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 8 businesses in this sector. 169 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 28 businesses in this sector. There were 426 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.1% of the workforce. , there were 107 workers who commuted into the municipality and 337 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.1 workers leaving the municipality  for every one entering. Of the working population, 12.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 66% used a private car. Transport. The municipality has a railway station, , on the suburban Lausanne–Bercher line. Religion. From the , 353 or 45.8% were Roman Catholic, while 279 or 36.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 3 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.39% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.39% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 48 individuals (or about 6.23% of  the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 (or about 0.26% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 person who was Buddhist and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 82 (or about 10.65% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 19 individuals (or about 2.47% of the population) did not answer the question. Education. In Assens about 318 or (41.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 105 or (13.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 105 who completed  tertiary schooling, 63.8% were Swiss men, 22.9% were Swiss women, 7.6% were non-Swiss men and 5.7% were non-Swiss women. In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 142 students in the Assens 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 296 children of which 96 children (32.4%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 82  students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 59 students in those schools. There were also 1 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school. , there were 73 students in Assens who came from another municipality, while 102 residents attended schools outside the municipality.