Ropraz

Ropraz is first mentioned in 1234 as Rospraz. ==Geography==

Ropraz has an area, , of . Of this area, or 70.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 19.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.9% is settled (buildings or roads). Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.1%. Out of the forested land, 17.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 49.3% is used for growing crops and 19.5% is pastures, while 2.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. The municipality is located along the road between Lausanne and Bern. It consists of the village of Ropraz, with the village sections of Bourg-du-Milieu and Bourg-Dessous and the hamlets of Vers-chez-les-Rod and Les Ussières. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a Cat effarouché proper langued purpure in forepaws holding a Key Argent. ==Demographics==

Ropraz has a population () of . , 8.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 4.1%. It has changed at a rate of 2.9% due to migration and at a rate of 4.1% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (325 or 87.1%), with German being second most common (11 or 2.9%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (9 or 2.4%). There are 4 people who speak Italian. , there were 151 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 187 married individuals, 15 widows or widowers and 20 individuals who are divorced. , there were 134 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. there were 149 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 51. There were 7 single room apartments and 40 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 132 apartments (88.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 10 apartments (6.7%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (4.7%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1140 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:380 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:80 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:16 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1432 from:start till:36 bar:1432 at:46 fontsize:S text: "9 Hearths" shift:(8,5) bar:1683 from:start till:72 bar:1683 at:82 fontsize:S text: "18 Hearths" shift:(8,5) bar:1803 from:start till:258 text:"258" bar:1850 from:start till:346 text:"346" bar:1860 from:start till:300 text:"300" bar:1870 from:start till:300 text:"300" bar:1880 from:start till:293 text:"293" bar:1888 from:start till:283 text:"283" bar:1900 from:start till:292 text:"292" bar:1910 from:start till:239 text:"239" bar:1920 from:start till:253 text:"253" bar:1930 from:start till:267 text:"267" bar:1941 from:start till:247 text:"247" bar:1950 from:start till:237 text:"237" bar:1960 from:start till:205 text:"205" bar:1970 from:start till:247 text:"247" bar:1980 from:start till:269 text:"269" bar:1990 from:start till:325 text:"325" bar:2000 from:start till:373 text:"373" ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 36.72% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (20.79%), the SP (15.28%) and the Green Party (8.75%). In the federal election, a total of 107 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.6%. ==Economy==

, Ropraz had an unemployment rate of 2.7%. , there were 34 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 9 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 6 businesses in this sector. 59 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 15 businesses in this sector. , there were 75 workers who commuted into the municipality and 105 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 11% used public transportation to get to work, and 58.9% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 49 or 13.1% were Roman Catholic, while 230 or 61.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church. There were 3 (or about 0.80% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 42 (or about 11.26% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 45 individuals (or about 12.06% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Ropraz about 123 or (33.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 53 or (14.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 53 who completed tertiary schooling, 58.5% were Swiss men, 30.2% were Swiss women. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 155 children of which 83 children (53.5%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 19 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 15 students in those schools. , there were 34 students in Ropraz who came from another municipality, while 52 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==