Forel () is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the district of Lavaux-Oron.
History
The oldest document mentioning the area around Forel (Lavaux) is dated 1140, and mentions Guy de Maligny, the bishop of Lausanne, owning the land with the Lac de Joux Abbey. The document mentioning the forests of Forel (Fores) dates to 1274.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 26.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 46.7% is used for growing crops and 16.5% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipal area is drained by the Grenet River which forms part of its natural municipal boundary. The central part is the over above sea level. To the north lies the town land in the forest area Bois du Grand Jorat (up to above sea level), which arises from the Carrouge. In the northeast, includes the territory of Petit Jorat at above sea level. To the west is the gently sloping hillside of Savigny. To the south, the town area extends to the wooded heights of Mont de Gourze at above sea level, the highest point on the watershed between the basins of the Rhône and Rhine.
The municipality consists of the real estate community center Cornes de Cerf ( above sea level) and numerous hamlets and settlements, including Le Pigeon, Le Plan, Le Grenet, Les Chesaudes and La Tuilière, all located on the southeast Jorat plateau, as well as many individual farms. The municipality is surrounded by Puidoux, Epesses, Riex, Cully, Grandvaux, Villette, Savigny, Les Cullayes, Servion, Essertes, Châtillens and Les Tavernes.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a letter F between Antlers all of Argent.
Demographics
Forel (Lavaux) has a population () of . , 15.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 13.2%. It has changed at a rate of 8.7% due to migration and at a rate of 5.3% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (1,571 or 92.2%), with German being second most common (56 or 3.3%) and Portuguese being third (23 or 1.3%). There are nine people who speak Italian.
, there were 732 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 793 married individuals, 83 widows or widowers and 96 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 671 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household.
there were 745 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 212. There were 38 single room apartments and 233 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 658 apartments (88.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 64 apartments (8.6%) were seasonally occupied and 23 apartments (3.1%) were empty.
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Economy
Forel was until the second half of the 20th century, a primarily agricultural village. Agriculture, dairy farming and animal husbandry, and forestry is an important factor in the employment structure of the population. All three industries currently employ about 33% of the workforce.
Since the 1970s, an industrial park was established in the range of Le Pigeon. Here, companies have developed in the construction industry and information technology, in addition there is also a company that manufactures kitchen appliances. Through the construction of numerous single-family homes in the last decades, the village has developed into a residential community. Many workers though are commuters who work mainly in Lausanne and in the Vevey-Montreux region.
, Forel (Lavaux) had an unemployment rate of 3.3%. , there were 111 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 48 businesses involved in this sector. 247 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 31 businesses in this sector. 232 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 55 businesses in this sector.
, there were 192 workers who commuted into the municipality and 653 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 9.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 68.8% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 376 or 22.1% were Roman Catholic, while 927 or 54.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 12 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.70% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.12% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 78 individuals (or about 4.58% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 individuals (or about 0.18% of the population) who were Jewish, and 21 (or about 1.23% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 3 individuals who belonged to another church. 249 (or about 14.61% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 70 individuals (or about 4.11% of the population) did not answer the question. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 665 children of which 232 children (34.9%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 136 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 81 students in those schools.
, there were 46 students in Forel (Lavaux) who came from another municipality, while 150 residents attended schools outside the municipality.