Versoix (; local Arpitan dialect: Varchoè) is a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, in Switzerland. It is located in the northern suburbs of Geneva.
Toponymy The name of the commune is of uncertain origin. It could be composed of the Proto-Indo-European base *uer- ("water, river"), the infix -s-, and suffix -ogia. It is first attested from 1026 to 1031, in the Medieval Latin form Uersoi. Its name in Genevan patois is Varchoè. The commune is nicknamed "the Crow's Nest".
Geography
Versoix has an area, , of . Of this area, or 29.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 38.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 32.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 19.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.7%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.8%. Out of the forested land, 36.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 23.1% is used for growing crops and 3.5% is pastures, while 2.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.4% is in lakes and 0.4% is in rivers and streams.
The municipality of Versoix consists of the sub-sections or villages of Richelien, Creuson, Sauverny, Petit-Saint-Loup, Ecogia, Versoix-la-Ville, Pont-Céard, Port-Choiseul, Versoix-Bourg, Versoix-lac, Crève-Cœur.Canton of Geneva Statistical Office Liste des 475 sous-secteurs statistiques du canton de Genève. accessed 18 April 2011
It is the last town of the Canton of Geneva on the road northeast towards Lausanne, before the Canton of Vaud starts. It is a train stop on the Swiss Federal Railways line running between Coppet and Geneva. On the Vaud side, the next village is called Mies.
The distance from the centre of Geneva is about 10 km, and it takes around 15 minutes by train or car to get into downtown.
Demographics Versoix has a population () of . , 41.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008 accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 23.3%. It has changed at a rate of 19% due to migration and at a rate of 5.8% due to births and deaths.Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 29-April-2011
Most of the population () speaks French (7,611 or 73.8%), with English being second most common (738 or 7.2%) and German being third (415 or 4.0%). There are 281 people who speak Italian and 3 people who speak Romansh.
, the gender distribution of the population was 48.3% male and 51.7% female. The population was made up of 3,465 Swiss men (26.6% of the population) and 2,831 (21.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 4,013 Swiss women (30.8%) and 2,713 (20.8%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Geneva Statistical Office Population résidante du canton de Genève, selon l'origine et le sexe, par commune, en mars 2011 accessed 18 April 2011 Of the population in the municipality 1,979 or about 19.2% were born in Versoix and lived there in 2000. There were 1,978 or 19.2% who were born in the same canton, while 1,603 or 15.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 4,052 or 39.3% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 75 live births to Swiss citizens and 54 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 57 deaths of Swiss citizens and 10 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 18 while the foreign population increased by 44. There were 39 Swiss men and 40 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 124 non-Swiss men and 94 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 56 and the non-Swiss population increased by 211 people. This represents a population growth rate of 2.2%.
The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 11.2%.
, there were 4,482 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 4,717 married individuals, 421 widows or widowers and 689 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 3,977 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 1,282 households that consist of only one person and 296 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 4,089 households that answered this question, 31.4% were households made up of just one person and there were 28 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 906 married couples without children, 1,323 married couples with children There were 384 single parents with a child or children. There were 54 households that were made up of unrelated people and 112 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 671 single family homes (or 56.9% of the total) out of a total of 1,179 inhabited buildings. There were 243 multi-family buildings (20.6%), along with 201 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (17.0%) and 64 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.4%). Of the single family homes 113 were built before 1919, while 90 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (138) were built between 1981 and 1990. The most multi-family homes (46) were built before 1919 and the next most (39) were built between 1991 and 1995. There were 19 multi-family houses built between 1996 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen accessed 28 January 2011
there were 4,536 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 1,406. There were 293 single room apartments and 991 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 3,734 apartments (82.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 676 apartments (14.9%) were seasonally occupied and 126 apartments (2.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.12%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 accessed 29 January 2011
Heritage sites of national significance
The Bourg, a Bronze Age littoral settlement, and the Villa Bartholony (Sans Souci) are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The Bourg settlement is part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps a UNESCO World Heritage Site.UNESCO World Heritage Site - Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
Sights
It is the hub for many humanitarian organizations and other organizations within the environmental, science, and technology fields. The University of Geneva has part of its campus, in particular the department of astronomy and its observatory, in Versoix, while the International Committee of the Red Cross maintains a training center there. Versoix has its official music band, the "Musique Municipale de Versoix", which also provides a music school. Versoix is also known for the impressive ice formations, or icicles, which can be seen mainly in the coast line during the winter.Versoix Google images
Chocolate
The Swiss chocolate manufacturer Favarger has its headquarters and factory in Versoix. Since 2004, Versoix has organized a chocolate festival. At this festival you can taste various artisan chocolates and visit the Favarger chocolate factory. Festival activities include treasure hunts.
Hobbies and sports
There is one sports center in Versoix, La Bécassière. It contains two pools, soccer fields, basketball courts and a beach-volleyball court. The pool in Versoix consists of two outdoor pools, a snack-bar, a restaurant with a terrace and a playground.
Versoix has a Parcours VITA-FUITE of , in the Versoix woods.
Sports clubs Le football club Versoix (FC Versoix) Le club de basket Versoix (Versoix Basket) Le badminton club Versoix ( BCV) Le judo, ju-jutsu club Versoix (JCV) Le tennis club Versoix (TCV) Le club nautique de Versoix Plastic colorful sabre training school Le Bushido Club Versoix Genève (jujutsu) (BCVG) Société de tir de Versoix (STV)(Versoix shooting sports Société founded in 1881)
Politics In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 22.27% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Green Party (18.16%), the SP (17.05%) and the LPS Party (13.65%). In the federal election, a total of 2,338 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.7%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton accessed 28 May 2010
In the 2009 Grand Conseil election, there were a total of 5,631 registered voters of which 1,919 (34.1%) voted. The most popular party in the municipality for this election was the Libéral with 16.1% of the ballots. In the canton-wide election they received the highest proportion of votes. The second most popular party was the Les Verts (with 15.9%), they were also second in the canton-wide election, while the third most popular party was the Les Socialistes (with 11.9%), they were fourth in the canton-wide election.Canton of Geneva Statistical Office Election Results from multiple spreadsheets accessed 18 April 2011
For the 2009 Conseil d'Etat election, there were a total of 5,635 registered voters of which 2,286 (40.6%) voted.
In 2011, all the municipalities held local elections, and in Versoix there were 27 spots open on the municipal council. There were a total of 7,640 registered voters of which 2,857 (37.4%) voted. Out of the 2,857 votes, there were 14 blank votes, 30 null or unreadable votes and 269 votes with a name that was not on the list.
Economy , Versoix had an unemployment rate of 7.2%. , there were 44 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 421 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 66 businesses in this sector. 2,060 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 277 businesses in this sector. There were 4,864 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 46.1% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 2,146. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 34, of which 20 were in agriculture, 11 were in forestry or lumber production and 2 were in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 405 of which 248 or (61.2%) were in manufacturing, 8 or (2.0%) were in mining and 135 (33.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,707. In the tertiary sector; 249 or 14.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 40 or 2.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 135 or 7.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 12 or 0.7% were in the information industry, 51 or 3.0% were the insurance or financial industry, 77 or 4.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 665 or 39.0% were in education and 278 or 16.3% were in health care.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3 accessed 28 January 2011