Penthalaz is a municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.
History
Penthalaz is first mentioned in 1182 as Pentala.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 12.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.0%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 15.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 47.0% is used for growing crops and 7.2% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located along the left bank of the Venoge river. It consists of the village of Penthalaz, the working-class neighborhood Sous la Ville, the residential neighborhood Bellevue and the industrial zone Cossonay-Gare.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Azure and Or, overall a Bend wavy Argent, two Mining-wheels counterchanged.
Demographics
Penthalaz has a population () of . , 20.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 25.7%. It has changed at a rate of 27.4% due to migration and at a rate of -1.1% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (2,000 or 87.6%), with German being second most common (64 or 2.8%) and Portuguese being third (53 or 2.3%). There are 47 people who speak Italian.
, there were 853 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,160 married individuals, 155 widows or widowers and 115 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 979 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household.
there were 1,035 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 419. There were 34 single room apartments and 196 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 969 apartments (93.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 51 apartments (4.9%) were seasonally occupied and 15 apartments (1.4%) were empty.
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Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 28.91% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (22.11%), the FDP (15.42%) and the Green Party (11.46%). In the federal election, a total of 626 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 40.3%.
Economy
, Penthalaz had an unemployment rate of 6.3%. , there were 16 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 547 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 29 businesses in this sector. 457 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 64 businesses in this sector.
, there were 554 workers who commuted into the municipality and 885 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 1.6% of the workforce coming into Penthalaz are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 15.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.9% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 296 children of which 96 children (32.4%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 156 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 156 students in those schools.
, there were 336 students in Penthalaz who came from another municipality, while 166 residents attended schools outside the municipality.