Épalinges (; ) is a municipality in the district of Lausanne in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.
It is a suburb of the city of Lausanne.
History
Épalinges is first mentioned in 1182 as de Spanengis.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 42.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.3% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.5%. Out of the forested land, 24.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.7% is used for growing crops and 6.8% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops.
The municipality is surrounded by Lausanne. It consists of the villages of Épalinges-Village, Les Croisettes, La Croix-Blanche and multiple hamlets.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess Argent and Gules, a Gander Sable lined of the first and beaked of the second overall.
Demographics
thumb|upright|Road between Bern and Lausanne at Épalinges
thumb|upright|Entrance to the municipality
thumb|upright|Forest in Épalinges
People from Épalinges are known as Palinsards.
Épalinges has a population () of . , 23.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 12.4%. It has changed at a rate of 7.6% due to migration and at a rate of 5.2% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (6,386 or 85.0%), with German being second most common (410 or 5.5%) and English being third (149 or 2.0%). There are 148 people who speak Italian and 5 people who speak Romansh.
, there were 3,114 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 3,680 married individuals, 333 widows or widowers and 389 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 3,160 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household.
there were 3,468 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 896. There were 207 single room apartments and 1,083 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 3,106 apartments (89.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 310 apartments (8.9%) were seasonally occupied and 52 apartments (1.5%) were empty.
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Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 22.87% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (17.28%), the Green Party (15.89%) and the FDP (15.44%). In the federal election, a total of 2,387 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.5%.
Economy
Épalinges hosts the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), a private not-for-profit foundation founded in 1964, as well as the (HSeT), a non-profit organization dedicated to web-based learning and teaching activities in the field of health sciences.
, Épalinges had an unemployment rate of 4%. , there were 6 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 212 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 31 businesses in this sector. 1,697 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 201 businesses in this sector.
, there were 1,241 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,057 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 1.9% of the workforce coming into Épalinges are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 24.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 60% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 2,648 children of which 1,947 children (73.5%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 544 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 405 students in those schools. There were also 27 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.
, there were 77 students in Épalinges who came from another municipality, while 679 residents attended schools outside the municipality.