Échandens is a municipality in the district of Morges of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland.
History
Échandens is first mentioned in 1164 as Scandens.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 13.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.5%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 15.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 42.0% is used for growing crops, while 9.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
It consists of the village of Échandens and the hamlet of Les Abbesses.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, two Chevrons Argent.
Demographics
Échandens has a population () of . , 17.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 2.8%. It has changed at a rate of -1.2% due to migration and at a rate of 3.9% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (1,804 or 86.5%), with German being second most common (121 or 5.8%) and Italian being third (40 or 1.9%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, there were 810 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,068 married individuals, 77 widows or widowers and 130 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 828 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.
there were 867 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 231. There were 35 single room apartments and 321 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 806 apartments (93.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 40 apartments (4.6%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (2.4%) were empty.
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Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 22.16% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (17.33%), the SP (16.99%) and the Green Party (15.34%). In the federal election, a total of 704 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 51.7%.
Economy
, Échandens had an unemployment rate of 3%. , there were 54 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 456 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 38 businesses in this sector. 591 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 102 businesses in this sector.
, there were 775 workers who commuted into the municipality and 881 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 2.1% of the workforce coming into Échandens are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 14.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.8% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 631 children of which 203 children (32.2%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 112 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 119 students in those schools. There were also 2 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.
, there were 38 students in Échandens who came from another municipality, while 201 residents attended schools outside the municipality.