Colombier () is a former municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the district of Morges.
The municipalities of Colombier, Monnaz and Saint-Saphorin-sur-Morges merged on 1 July 2011 into the municipality of Echichens.
History
Colombier is first mentioned in 937 as Columbaris.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.4%. Out of the forested land, 8.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 76.7% is used for growing crops and 2.7% is pastures, while 3.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, a Chervon Argent.
Demographics
Colombier has a population () of 512. , 6.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999-2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 14%. It has changed at a rate of 7.1% due to migration and at a rate of 6.7% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (420 or 92.1%), with German being second most common (26 or 5.7%) and English being third (3 or 0.7%). There is 1 person who speaks Italian.
, there were 202 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 227 married individuals, 20 widows or widowers and 7 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.63 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.61 per room. About 66.2% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 163 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household.
there were 171 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 52. There were 3 single room apartments and 71 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 157 apartments (91.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 7 apartments (4.1%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (4.1%) were empty.
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Sights
The entire village of Colombier is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 24.17% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (19.73%), the Green Party (15.57%) and the FDP (12.88%). In the federal election, a total of 149 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 45.2%.
Economy
, Colombier had an unemployment rate of 3.7%. , there were 38 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 1 person was employed in the secondary sector and there was 1 business in this sector. 55 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 14 businesses in this sector.
, there were 18 workers who commuted into the municipality and 178 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 9.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 64.9% 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 44 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 38 students in those schools. There were also 1 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.
, there were 30 students in Colombier who came from another municipality, while 61 residents attended schools outside the municipality.