Choulex
Choulex is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. History. Choulex is first mentioned in 1153 as "Cholay". Geography. Choulex has an area, , of . Of this area, or 73.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 9.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 15.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.0% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 11.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 5.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.1 % is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 52.4% is used for growing crops and 12.5% is pastures, while 8.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located south of Lake Geneva. It consists of the linear village of Choulex and the hamlets of Bonvard, Briffod, Chevrier, La Capite and Miolan. The municipality of Choulex consists of the sub-sections or villages of La Capite - Bonvard, Sur-la-Ville, Les Jurets and Choulex. Demographics. Choulex has a population () of . , 16.4% of the population  are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -0.3%. It has changed at a rate of 1.9% due to migration and at a rate of -2.1% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (812 or 86.8%), with English being second most common (54 or 5.8%) and German being third (23 or 2.5%). , the gender distribution of the population was 46.7% male and 53.3% female. The population was made up of 369 Swiss men (35.7% of the population) and 113 (10.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 430  Swiss women (41.6%) and 121 (11.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 212 or about 22.7% were born in Choulex and lived there in 2000. There were 310 or 33.2% who were born in the same canton, while 123 or 13.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 237 or 25.3% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 4 live births to Swiss citizens and 5 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 10 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of  Swiss citizens decreased by 6 while the foreign population increased by 3. There was 1 Swiss man who emigrated from Switzerland and 3 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 3 non-Swiss men and 2 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 7 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 19 people. This represents a population growth rate of -2.7%. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19  years old) make up 25.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.4%. , there were 371 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 446 married individuals, 60 widows or widowers and 58 individuals who are divorced. , there were 357 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 108 households that consist of only one person and 33 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 377 households that answered this question, 28.6% were  households made up of just one person and there were 4 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 91 married couples without children, 123 married couples with children There were 26 single parents with a child or children. There were 5 households that were made up of unrelated people and 20 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 SVP which received 22.49% of the vote . The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party (22.4%), the Green Party (17.94%) and the SP (12.78%). In the federal election, a total of 328 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 53.0%. In the 2009 Grand Conseil election, there were a total of 635 registered voters of which 312 (49.1%) voted. The most popular party in the municipality for this election was the Libéral with 24.9% of the ballots. In the canton-wide election they received the highest proportion of votes. The second most popular party was the Les Verts (with 17.7%), they were also second  in the canton-wide election, while the third most popular party was the PDC (with 11.1%), they were fifth in the canton-wide election. For the 2009 Conseil d'État election, there were a total of 638 registered voters of which 336 (52.7%) voted. In 2011, all the municipalities held local elections, and in Choulex there were 13 spots open on the municipal council. There were a total of 692 registered voters of which 345 (49.9%) voted. Out of the 345 votes, there were 1 blank votes, 1 null or unreadable votes and 52 votes with a name that was not  on the list. Economy. , Choulex had an unemployment rate of 4.2%. , there were 29 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 25 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 8 businesses in this sector. 65 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 20 businesses in this sector. There were 420 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.1% of the workforce. , there were 124 workers who commuted into the municipality and 350 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a  net exporter of workers, with about 2.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 33.9% of the workforce coming into Choulex are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 16% used public transportation to get to work, and 62.9% used a private car. Religion. From the , 382 or 40.9% were Roman Catholic, while 221 or 23.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.86% of the population), there was 1 individual  who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 22 individuals (or about 2.35% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 24 individuals (or about 2.57% of the population) who were Jewish, and 17 (or about 1.82% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 person who was Buddhist and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 179 (or about 19.14% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 79 individuals (or about 8.45% of the population) did not answer the question. Education. In Choulex about 281 or (30.1%) of  the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 252 or (27.0%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 252 who completed tertiary schooling, 42.1% were Swiss men, 34.1% were Swiss women, 13.5% were non-Swiss men and 10.3% were non-Swiss women. During the 2009-2010 school year there were a total of 212 students in the Choulex school system. The education system in the Canton of Geneva allows young children to attend two years of non-obligatory Kindergarten. During that school year, there were 13 children who were in a pre-kindergarten  class. The canton's school system provides two years of non-mandatory kindergarten and requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In Choulex there were 28 students in kindergarten or primary school and - students were in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 28 lower secondary students who attended school in Choulex. There were 39 upper secondary students from the municipality along with 12 students who were in  a professional, non-university track program. An additional 39 students attended a private school. , there were 5 students in Choulex who came from another municipality, while 131 residents attended schools outside the municipality.