Renens () is a municipality in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. It is located in the district of Ouest Lausannois, and is a suburb of the city of Lausanne. It is the fourth largest city in the canton.

Renens was around that time still a small village where a few families owned the countryside: the castle of 'Renens-sur-Roche' (18th century) where the Roëlls, Auberjonois and Guyots succeeded each other, and the 'Ferme des Tilleuls' (Tilia farm), built at the beginning of the 18th century by the Praroman family, where Pierre-Elie Bergier lived.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 13.9% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 41.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 28.7%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 3.4% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 6.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 1.0% is used for growing crops, while 1.7% is used for orchards or vine crops.

The municipality is the capital of the new district of Ouest lausannois. It is part of the agglomeration of Lausanne, and Lausanne Metro Line M1 terminates at Renens railway station. The Swiss Federal Railway line connects Renens to Lausanne more directly, as well as offering some longer-distance trains. Renens is located close to junctions 17 and 18 of the A1 motorway.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, two Pales wavy Argent, Chief of the same.

Demographics

thumb|Row of houses in Renens

thumb|View of an apartment block in Renens

thumb|[[École cantonale d'art de Lausanne|ECAL building in Renens]]

Renens has a population () of . , 51.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between 1999 and 2009 the population increased by 14.4%.

Most of the population () spoke French (13,576 or 73.8%), with Italian being second most common (1,214 or 6.6%) and Portuguese being third (810 or 4.4%). There were 567 residents who speak German and 11 who spoke Romansh.

In 2000 there were 7,576 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 8,731 married individuals, 913 widows or widowers and 1,186 individuals who are divorced.

In 2000 there were 8,196 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.

In 2000 there were 8,959 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was three rooms, of which there were 3,095. There were 919 single room apartments and 708 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 8,015 apartments (89.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 748 apartments (8.3%) were seasonally occupied and 196 apartments (2.2%) were empty.

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Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 23.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.39%), the PdA Party (14.34%) and the Green Party (13.66%). In the federal election, a total of 2,897 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 39.7%.

Economy

thumb|UBS building in Renens

, Renens had an unemployment rate of 7.6%. , there were 8 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 1 business involved in this sector. 2,338 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 153 businesses in this sector. 7,493 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 579 businesses in this sector.

, there were 7,789 workers who commuted into the municipality and 7,087 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.1 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 2.2% of the workforce coming into Renens are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 31.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 49.8% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 803 children of which 502 children (62.5%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 1,329 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 916 students in those schools. There were also 110 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.

, there were 93 students in Renens who came from another municipality, while 1,188 residents attended schools outside the municipality. He was trainer of FC Renens between 2011 and 2013, and president of the club in 2013–2014.

  • Henri Dès (born 1940 in Renens) a French-language children's singer and songwriter, fourth in the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest
  • Gabriel Reymond (1923–2021) racewalker, competed in the 1952 and 1960 Summer Olympics, lived in Renens
  • Bigambo Rochat (born 1991 in Renens) a Swiss footballer
  • Alfred Stucky (1892–1969) a swiss dam engineer who established his engineering firm, today part of Gruner AG, in Renens in 1926
  • Frédéric Veseli (born 1992 in Renens) an Albanian professional footballer, over 130 club caps

References

  • Renens Homepage