Villars-Sainte-Croix is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the district of Ouest Lausannois.
History
The Order of St John owned the old village church and a hospital which is mentioned in records from before 1272. The buildings still existed as ruins in 1546. Both had been part of the commandry of La Chaux.
Geography
thumb|left|Countryside outside Villars-Sainte-Croix
Villars-Sainte-Croix has an area, , of . Of this area, or 53.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 9.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 37.6% is settled (buildings or roads).
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 6.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 12.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 17.6%. Out of the forested land, 7.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 43.6% is used for growing crops and 8.5% is pastures, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Argent and Gules, a Maltese Cross counterchanged.
Demographics
Villars-Sainte-Croix has a population () of . , 23.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 19.8%. It has changed at a rate of 14.2% due to migration and at a rate of 5.3% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (530 or 88.0%), with Italian being second most common (31 or 5.1%) and German being third (25 or 4.2%).
, there were 239 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 312 married individuals, 13 widows or widowers and 38 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 215 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household.
there were 210 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 60. There were 10 single-room apartments and 86 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 170 apartments (81.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 40 apartments (19.0%) were seasonally occupied.
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Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 26.71% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (20.3%), the FDP (19.04%) and the Green Party (9.88%). In the federal election, a total of 183 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.0%.
Economy
, Villars-Sainte-Croix had an unemployment rate of 2.2%. , there were 7 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 392 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 37 businesses in this sector. 462 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 57 businesses in this sector.
, there were 495 workers who commuted into the municipality and 264 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.9 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 3.6% of the workforce coming into Villars-Sainte-Croix are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 10.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 76.5% 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 43 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 40 students in those schools.
, there were 35 students in Villars-Sainte-Croix who came from another municipality, while 80 residents attended schools outside the municipality.