Estavayer-le-Lac

Estavayer-le-Lac has an area, , of . Of this area, or 55.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 6.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 33.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 4.7% is unproductive land. Following the 2012 merger of Font, the total area increased to . Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 4.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 16.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.4%. Out of the forested land, 4.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 46.9% is used for growing crops and 8.1% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. The municipality is located in the Broye district, on the southern bank of Lake Neuchatel at an elevation of . It is a district capital and a regional administration and business center. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules and Argent three bars wavy of the first, overall a double rose of the first barbed and seeded proper. ==Demographics==

Estavayer-le-Lac has a population () of . , 25.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 19.5%. Migration accounted for 14.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.5%. Most of the population () speaks French (3,602 or 81.2%) as their first language, German is the second most common (256 or 5.8%) and Albanian is the third (165 or 3.7%). There are 46 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 1,289 or about 29.1% were born in Estavayer-le-Lac and lived there in 2000. There were 983 or 22.2% who were born in the same canton, while 893 or 20.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,029 or 23.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 1,737 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 8.5 new units per 1000 residents. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:4500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:900 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:180 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:1323 text:"1,323" bar:1860 from:start till:1383 text:"1,383" bar:1870 from:start till:1413 text:"1,413" bar:1880 from:start till:1478 text:"1,478" bar:1888 from:start till:1555 text:"1,555" bar:1900 from:start till:1636 text:"1,636" bar:1910 from:start till:1958 text:"1,958" bar:1920 from:start till:2125 text:"2,125" bar:1930 from:start till:2021 text:"2,021" bar:1941 from:start till:2137 text:"2,137" bar:1950 from:start till:2452 text:"2,452" bar:1960 from:start till:2583 text:"2,583" bar:1970 from:start till:3439 text:"3,439" bar:1980 from:start till:3662 text:"3,662" bar:1990 from:start till:3808 text:"3,808" bar:2000 from:start till:4437 text:"4,437" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The De Rivaz Chapel, the Sacré-Coeur Chapel, the Chenaux Castle, the Collegiate church of Saint-Laurent, the Convent of the Dominican nuns, the town fortifications, the House de la Dîme and the House des Sires d’Estavayer listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire town of Estavayer-le-Lac is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. From the 2012 merger of Font into Estavayer-le-Lac, the Gallo-Roman villa at La Vuardaz and the entire Font area (shared between Châbles and Font) were added. File:Picswiss FR-15-25.jpg| De Rivaz Chapel File:Picswiss FR-15-14.jpg|Sacré-Coeur Chapel File:Picswiss FR-15-03.jpg|Chenaux Castle File:Estavayer-le-Lac Saint-Laurent.jpg|Collegiate church of Saint-Laurent File:Estavayer-le-Lac couvent.jpg| Convent of the Dominican File:Picswiss FR-15-01.jpg| Fortifications File:Picswiss FR-15-37.jpg|House de la Dîme File:Motte_Châtel_8_Estavayer_le_Lac_Aug_2011.JPG| House des Sires d’Estavayer ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 29.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (25.0%), the SVP (18.5%) and the FDP (12.8%). The CVP received about the same percentage of the vote as they did in the 2007 Federal election (31.7% in 2007 vs 29.7% in 2011). The SPS moved from third in 2007 (with 20.5%) to second in 2011, the SVP moved from second in 2007 (with 23.6%) to third and the FDP gained popularity (13.5% in 2007). A total of 1,372 votes were cast in this election, of which 16 or 1.2% were invalid. ==Economy==

, Estavayer-le-Lac had an unemployment rate of 3.9%. , there were 28 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 1,343 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 62 businesses in this sector. 1,537 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 187 businesses in this sector. , there were 1,495 workers who commuted into the municipality and 812 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.8 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 6% used public transportation to get to work, and 58% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 2,853 or 64.3% were Roman Catholic, while 533 or 12.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 54 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.22% of the population), there were 6 individuals (or about 0.14% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 131 individuals (or about 2.95% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who were Jewish, and 299 (or about 6.74% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 5 individuals who were Buddhist, 3 individuals who were Hindu and 3 individuals who belonged to another church. 297 (or about 6.69% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 315 individuals (or about 7.10% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Estavayer-le-Lac about 1,339 or (30.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 451 or (10.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 451 who completed tertiary schooling, 60.8% were Swiss men, 22.6% were Swiss women, 7.8% were non-Swiss men and 8.9% were non-Swiss women. During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 1,276 students attending 72 classes in Estavayer-le-Lac. A total of 895 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were 6 kindergarten classes with a total of 110 students in the municipality. The municipality had 18 primary classes and 377 students. During the same year, there were 33 lower secondary classes with a total of 683 students. There were 2 upper Secondary classes, with 33 upper Secondary students. The municipality had 13 special Tertiary classes, with 73 specialized Tertiary students. , there were 440 students in Estavayer-le-Lac who came from another municipality, while 145 residents attended schools outside the municipality. == Famous citizens ==

• Franz Wilhelm (1884–1968) a Swiss fencer, competed in the team épée event at the 1920 Summer Olympics • Léon Savary (1895–1968) Swiss journalist and author, buried in Estavayer-Le-Lac • Jan Balet (1913–2009) a German/US-American painter, graphic artist and illustrator • Gabriel Bullet (1921–2011) a Swiss prelate of the Roman Catholic Church • Jean-Claude Périsset (born 1939) Archbishop, Apostolic Nuncio to Germany • Thérèse Meyer (born 1948) a Swiss politician, Mayor of Estavayer-le-Lac 1991 ==References==