Ponthaux (; ) is a former municipality in the district of Sarine in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. On 1 January 2025 the former municipalities of Grolley and Ponthaux merged to form the new municipality of Grolley-Ponthaux.
History Ponthaux is first mentioned in 1142 as Pontet.
Geography Ponthaux, , has an area of . Of this area, or 70.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 23.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.2% 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 4.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.5%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 49.0% is used for growing crops and 19.6% is pastures, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.
The municipality is located in the Sarine district. It consists of the village of Ponthaux and since the merger on 1 January 1981, the former municipality of Nierlet-les-Bois.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz accessed 4 April 2011
Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Pally of Six Argent and Gules and in a Chief of the first a Cross bottony of the second between two Oak Leaves Vert.Flags of the World.com accessed 11-December-2011
Demographics Ponthaux has a population () of . , 7.3% 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 (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 26.4%. Migration accounted for 15.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 7.9%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 11-December-2011
Most of the population () speaks French (435 or 89.1%) as their first language, German is the second most common (43 or 8.8%) and Portuguese is the third (4 or 0.8%). There are 3 people who speak Italian.
, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 273 Swiss men (44.7% of the population) and 31 (5.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 287 Swiss women (47.0%) and 20 (3.3%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Fribourg Statistics accessed 3 November 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 195 or about 40.0% were born in Ponthaux and lived there in 2000. There were 192 or 39.3% who were born in the same canton, while 69 or 14.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 32 or 6.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 29.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 9.2%.
, there were 213 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 241 married individuals, 19 widows or widowers and 15 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 172 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household. There were 32 households that consist of only one person and 24 households with five or more people. , a total of 164 apartments (91.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 13 apartments (7.3%) were seasonally occupied and 2 apartments (1.1%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 8 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.44%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 accessed 29 January 2011
Politics In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SPS which received 31.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (20.5%), the SVP (18.1%) and the FDP (6.9%).Canton of Fribourg National Council Election of 23 October 2011 Statistics accessed 3 November 2011
The SPS received about the same percentage of the vote as they did in the 2007 Federal election (27.8% in 2007 vs 31.2% in 2011). The CVP lost popularity (25.6% in 2007), the SVP retained about the same popularity (16.4% in 2007) and the FDP moved from below fourth place in 2007 to fourth. A total of 191 votes were cast in this election, of which 3 or 1.6% were invalid.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton accessed 28 May 2010
Economy , Ponthaux had an unemployment rate of 2.5%. , there were 39 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses were involved in this sector. 14 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 5 businesses in this sector. 45 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 10 businesses in this sector. There were 259 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.6% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 81. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 30, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 13 of which 11 or (84.6%) were in manufacturing and 2 (15.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 38. In the tertiary sector; 16 or 42.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 5 or 13.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 13.2% were in the information industry, 4 or 10.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 10.5% were in education and 1 was in health care.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3 accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 31 workers who commuted into the municipality and 200 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 6.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 67.6% used a private car.
Religion From the , 413 or 84.6% were Roman Catholic, while 45 or 9.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, there was 1 individual who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 13 individuals (or about 2.66% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 (or about 0.41% of the population) who were Islamic. 14 (or about 2.87% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 4 individuals (or about 0.82% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education In Ponthaux about 176 or (36.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 44 or (9.0%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 44 who completed tertiary schooling, 72.7% were Swiss men, 20.5% were Swiss women.
The Canton of Fribourg school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend a three or four year optional upper Secondary school. The upper Secondary school is divided into gymnasium (university preparatory) and vocational programs. After they finish the upper Secondary program, students may choose to attend a Tertiary school or continue their apprenticeship.Chart of the education system in Canton Fribourg
During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 53 students attending 3 classes in Ponthaux. A total of 128 students from the municipality attended any school, either in the municipality or outside of it. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality, but 10 students attended kindergarten in a neighboring municipality. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 53 students. During the same year, there were no lower secondary classes in the municipality, but 27 students attended lower secondary school in a neighboring municipality. There were no upper Secondary classes or vocational classes, but there were 9 upper Secondary students and 19 upper Secondary vocational students who attended classes in another municipality. The municipality had no non-university Tertiary classes, but there were 3 non-university Tertiary students and 3 specialized Tertiary students who attended classes in another municipality.
, there were 23 students in Ponthaux who came from another municipality, while 43 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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