Echarlens

Echarlens is first mentioned in 855 as Escarlingus or Escarlinges. ==Geography==

Echarlens has an area, , of . Of this area, or 74.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 13.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.5% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 6.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 11.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 20.5% is used for growing crops and 46.9% is pastures and 7.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Gruyère district. It consists of the village of Echarlens near the A12 motorway and the Bulle-Fribourg road. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Pally of Six Argent and Gules overall in chief a Mullet of Five Or. ==Demographics==

Echarlens has a population () of . , 11.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 20.6%. Migration accounted for 17.8%, while births and deaths accounted for 5.9%. Most of the population () speaks French (510 or 92.4%) as their first language, German is the second most common (18 or 3.3%) and Portuguese is the third (12 or 2.2%). There are 2 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 161 or about 29.2% were born in Echarlens and lived there in 2000. There were 232 or 42.0% who were born in the same canton, while 71 or 12.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 67 or 12.1% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 207 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 10 new units per 1000 residents. 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:560 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1811 from:start till:518 text:"518" bar:1850 from:start till:440 text:"440" bar:1860 from:start till:418 text:"418" bar:1870 from:start till:403 text:"403" bar:1880 from:start till:407 text:"407" bar:1888 from:start till:423 text:"423" bar:1900 from:start till:446 text:"446" bar:1910 from:start till:431 text:"431" bar:1920 from:start till:479 text:"479" bar:1930 from:start till:421 text:"421" bar:1941 from:start till:421 text:"421" bar:1950 from:start till:426 text:"426" bar:1960 from:start till:392 text:"392" bar:1970 from:start till:337 text:"337" bar:1980 from:start till:344 text:"344" bar:1990 from:start till:416 text:"416" bar:2000 from:start till:552 text:"552" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The Notre-Dame De L’Assomption Church is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 31.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (19.1%), the FDP (17.5%) and the CVP (14.6%). The SPS gained an additional 6.4% of the vote from the 2007 Federal election (24.9% in 2007 vs 31.3% in 2011). The SVP moved from third in 2007 (with 19.6%) to second in 2011, the FDP moved from second in 2007 (with 24.0%) to third and the CVP retained about the same popularity (18.4% in 2007). A total of 236 votes were cast in this election, of which 4 or 1.7% were invalid. ==Economy==

, Echarlens had an unemployment rate of 2.7%. , there were 42 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 19 businesses involved in this sector. 13 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 7 businesses in this sector. 38 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 11 businesses in this sector. , there were 28 workers who commuted into the municipality and 233 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 71.9% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 440 or 79.7% were Roman Catholic, while 29 or 5.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church. There were 7 (or about 1.27% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 person who was Hindu. 52 (or about 9.42% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 22 individuals (or about 3.99% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Echarlens about 166 or (30.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 70 or (12.7%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 70 who completed tertiary schooling, 61.4% were Swiss men, 27.1% were Swiss women. During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 101 students attending 5 classes in Echarlens. A total of 143 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 21 students in the municipality. The municipality had 4 primary classes and 80 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 28 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 15 upper Secondary students and 16 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there was one non-university Tertiary student and 3 specialized Tertiary students who attended classes in another municipality. , there were 42 students in Echarlens who came from another municipality, while 60 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==