Founex is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.
History
Signs of Roman-era inhabitation were found near Le Gachet. The first appearance of the village was in 1224 under the name Fosnay. In 1251 it changed to Founai. During Middle Ages, Founex belonged to the abbey of Saint Maurice. It was later influenced by the Barony of Coppet, the diocese of Geneva and the Bernese occupation.
When the separation of Vaud from Bern occurred in 1536 the village came under control of the district of Nyon. In the 14th century a Cistercian abbey Bonmont and the dependent la Châtaigneraie joined Founex. After the Ancien Régime Founex was, from 1798 to 1803 in the Helvetic Republic's Canton of Léman.
On July 8, 1886 phylloxera vastatrix is identified in a local vineyard.
In 2002, Founex and 8 other villages formed the area called the Terre Sainte, although a formalisation of such union into a legal unification was rejected by the Founex general council on 30 August 2010.
Geography
Founex has an area, , of . Of this area, or 65.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 2.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 32.2% is settled (buildings or roads).
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 24.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.5% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 35.7% is used for growing crops and 4.4% is pastures, while 25.1% is used for orchards or vine crops.
The municipality was part of the Nyon District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Founex became part of the new district of Nyon.
It consists of the village of Founex and the hamlets of Châtaigneraie and Le Gachet.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, scales Argent.
Demographics
Founex has a population () of . , 42.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 24.9%. It has changed at a rate of 17.2% due to migration and at a rate of 7.9% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (1,701 or 64.2%), with English being second most common (378 or 14.3%) and German being third (185 or 7.0%). There are 73 people who speak Italian.
The age distribution, , in Founex is; 418 children or 14.2% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 440 teenagers or 15.0% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 274 people or 9.3% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 383 people or 13.1% are between 30 and 39, 548 people or 18.7% are between 40 and 49, and 360 people or 12.3% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 291 people or 9.9% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 149 people or 5.1% are between 70 and 79, there are 64 people or 2.2% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 7 people or 0.2% who are 90 and older.
, there were 1,113 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,351 married individuals, 66 widows or widowers and 118 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 986 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 238 households that consist of only one person and 100 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 995 households that answered this question, 23.9% were households made up of just one person and there were 5 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 250 married couples without children, 408 married couples with children There were 69 single parents with a child or children. There were 16 households that were made up of unrelated people and 9 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 582 single family homes (or 80.1% of the total) out of a total of 727 inhabited buildings. There were 83 multi-family buildings (11.4%), along with 44 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (6.1%) and 18 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.5%).
, a total of 851 apartments (88.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 79 apartments (8.2%) were seasonally occupied and 28 apartments (2.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%.
The historical population is given in the following chart: