Penthalaz
Penthalaz is a municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History. Penthalaz is first mentioned in 1182 as "Pentala". Geography. Penthalaz has an area, , of . Of this area, or 55.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 16.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 25.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 12.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.0%. while parks, green belts  and sports fields made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 15.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 47.0% is used for growing crops and 7.2% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality was part of the Cossonay District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Penthalaz became part of the new district of Gros-de-Vaud. The municipality is located along the left bank of  the Venoge river. It consists of the village of Penthalaz, the working-class neighborhood Sous la Ville, the residential neighborhood Bellevue and the industrial zone Cossonay-Gare. Coat of arms. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Per pale Azure and Or, overall a Bend wavy Argent, two Mining-wheels counterchanged." Demographics. Penthalaz has a population () of . , 20.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 25.7%. It has changed at a rate of 27.4% due to migration and at a rate of -1.1% due  to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (2,000 or 87.6%), with German being second most common (64 or 2.8%) and Portuguese being third (53 or 2.3%). There are 47 people who speak Italian. Of the population in the municipality 465 or about 20.4% were born in Penthalaz and lived there in 2000. There were 993 or 43.5% who were born in the same canton, while 319 or 14.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 445 or 19.5% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 22 live births to Swiss citizens and 8 births to non -Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 17 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population increased by 6. There was 1 Swiss man and 1 Swiss woman who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 26 non-Swiss men and 25 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 an increase of 66 and the non-Swiss population  increased by 89 people. This represents a population growth rate of 6.4%. The age distribution, , in Penthalaz is; 285 children or 10.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 312 teenagers or 10.9% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 415 people or 14.5% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 488 people or 17.1% are between 30 and 39, 460 people or 16.1% are between 40 and 49, and 340 people or 11.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 269 people or 9.4% of the population  are between 60 and 69 years old, 171 people or 6.0% are between 70 and 79, there are 94 people or 3.3% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 24 people or 0.8% who are 90 and older. , there were 853 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,160 married individuals, 155 widows or widowers and 115 individuals who are divorced. , there were 979 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 314 households that consist of only one person and 42 households with five or  more people. Out of a total of 994 households that answered this question, 31.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 3 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 292 married couples without children, 314 married couples with children There were 43 single parents with a child or children. There were 13 households that were made up of unrelated people and 15 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 SP which received 28.91% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (22.11%), the FDP (15.42%) and the Green Party (11.46%). In the federal election, a total of 626 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 40.3%. Economy. , Penthalaz had an unemployment rate of 6.3%. , there were 16 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 547 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 29 businesses in this sector. 457 people were employed in the tertiary sector , with 64 businesses in this sector. There were 1,169 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.1% of the workforce. , there were 554 workers who commuted into the municipality and 885 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 1.6% of the workforce coming into Penthalaz are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 15.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.9% used a private car. Religion. From the , 590 or 25.8% were  Roman Catholic, while 1,181 or 51.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 46 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.01% of the population), and there were 97 individuals (or about 4.25% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were58 (or about 2.54% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist and 8 individuals who belonged to another church. 256 (or about 11.21% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 87 individuals (or about 3.81% of the population) did  not answer the question. Education. In Penthalaz about 915 or (40.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 233 or (10.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 233 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.2% were Swiss men, 27.0% were Swiss women, 12.0% were non-Swiss men and 4.7% were non-Swiss women. In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 312 students in the Penthalaz 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 156 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 156 students in those schools. , there were 336 students in Penthalaz who came from another municipality, while 166 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Transportation. The municipality has a railway station, , on the Jura Foot and Simplon lines. It has  regular service to , , , and . In front of the railway station, there is a funicular station connecting the town of Cossonay. The lower funicular station is called Cossonay-Gare, but is in the village of Penthalaz.