Gland () is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. The city also is home to the IUCN and WWF headquarters.

History

Gland is known to have been a prehistoric settlement. During the Roman period a farm called Villa Glanis was there. Until the 1960s, Gland was merely a small farming village (essentially vineyards and cattle).

Gland is first mentioned around 994–1049 CE as de Glans.

In the 1930s, the Toblerone line, a defensive line, was built along the western edge of Gland, stretching from Lac Léman towards the Jura mountains. Its purpose was to stop a tank invasion from the west.

The opening of the highway linking Geneva with Lausanne brought many commuters to this once-quiet place. It is only since the mid-1980s that Gland has started to grow into a town with its own businesses and shopping centers.

Geography

thumb|left|300px|Gland and [[Lake Geneva]]

Gland has an area, , of . Of this area, or 45.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 14.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 40.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 18.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.9%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 3.5% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 6.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 29.0% is used for growing crops and 5.0% is pastures, while 11.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located between Lake Geneva and the Côte region.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent, from a hill Vert an Oak-tree of the same fructed Or.

The French word 'Gland' means 'acorn'. Hence the prominence of acorns in the town's coat of arms.

Demographics

thumb|left|Gland train station

thumb|Aerial view (1964)

Gland has a population () of . , 32.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. During the 10-year period 1999–2009 the population increased at a rate of 21.4%: 9.5% due to migration and 12% due to births and deaths.

Most of the population () speaks French (7,677 or 79.4%), with German being second most common (628 or 6.5%) and English being third (346 or 3.6%). There are 253 people who speak Italian and 7 people who speak Romansh.

, there were 4,219 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 4,589 married individuals, 258 widows or widowers and 597 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 3,924 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household.

, a total of 3,773 apartments (89.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 392 apartments (9.3%) were seasonally occupied and 57 apartments (1.4%) were empty.

<timeline>

Colors=

id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)

id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)

ImageSize = width:1020 height:210

PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100

AlignBars = justify

DateFormat = x.y

Period = from:0 till:9700

TimeAxis = orientation:vertical

AlignBars = justify

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1900 start:0

ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:380 start:0

PlotData=

color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center

bar:1764 from:start till:324 text:"324"

bar:1850 from:start till:425 text:"425"

bar:1860 from:start till:484 text:"484"

bar:1870 from:start till:566 text:"566"

bar:1880 from:start till:587 text:"587"

bar:1888 from:start till:600 text:"600"

bar:1900 from:start till:676 text:"676"

bar:1910 from:start till:810 text:"810"

bar:1920 from:start till:942 text:"942"

bar:1930 from:start till:992 text:"992"

bar:1941 from:start till:998 text:"998"

bar:1950 from:start till:1180 text:"1,180"

bar:1960 from:start till:1545 text:"1,545"

bar:1970 from:start till:2404 text:"2,404"

bar:1980 from:start till:4906 text:"4,906"

bar:1990 from:start till:7109 text:"7,109"

bar:2000 from:start till:9663 text:"9,663"

</timeline>

Heritage sites of national significance

right|thumb|Villa la Rajada

The private house "La Villa a Rajada", designed in 1961 by the architectural collaboration of Jakob and Christian Hunziker with Robert Frei, with sculptures by Henri Presset and ceramics by Philippe Lamberoy, along with its outbuildings and land, are listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 21.38% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (20.4%), the Green Party (13.66%) and the FDP (13.63%). In the federal election, a total of 2,221 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 39.5%.

Economy

Since it is located halfway between the cities of Geneva and Lausanne, many international companies and organizations have offices in Gland, among others Sun Microsystems, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), the Ramsar Convention and World Wide Fund for Nature. The online brokerage and bank, Swissquote, has its headquarters in Gland.

, Gland had an unemployment rate of 5.5%. , there were 83 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 14 businesses involved in this sector. 838 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 120 businesses in this sector. 3,857 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 403 businesses in this sector.

, there were 2,833 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,872 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 12.2% of the workforce coming into Gland are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.1% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 18.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.2% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 1,249 children of which 563 children (45.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 830 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 701 students in those schools. There were also 42 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.

, there were 272 students in Gland who came from another municipality, while 451 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

The La Côte International School, an international school, was previously in Vich, near Gland.

Sport

Gland is home to the football team FC Gland. They currently play in the fifth level of the Swiss Football League, in the Association Cantonale Vaudoise de Football (ACVF).

Notable people

  • Bert Beverly Beach (1928–2022) – a retired American Adventist theologian, university teacher, author and philanthropist
  • Michael Schumacher (born 1969) – seven-time Formula One World Champion
  • Mick Schumacher (born 1999) – Formula One racing driver, son of Michael Schumacher

References

  • Official website of the Town of Gland
  • The Toblerone Trail