Sulgen
Encyclopedia
Sulgen is a municipality
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in Weinfelden District in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Thurgau
Thurgau
Thurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners. The capital is Frauenfeld.-History:...

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

Geography

Sulgen has an area, , of 9.13 square kilometres (3.5 sq mi). Of this area, 6.12 km² (2.4 sq mi) or 67.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.18 km² (0.455600547139191 sq mi) or 12.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.7 km² (0.65637366960731 sq mi) or 18.6% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km² (7.4 acre) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.07 km² (17.3 acre) or 0.8% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 10.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 2.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.4%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 53.2% is used for growing crops, while 13.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

In 1996 the municipalities of Götighofen and Hessenreuti merged into Sulgen.

Demographics

Sulgen has a population of , 21.5% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 2.2%. Most of the population speaks German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

(88.3%), with Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...

 being second most common ( 5.6%) and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 being third ( 1.7%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. The population was made up of 1,310 Swiss men (38.4% of the population), and 373 (10.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,369 Swiss women (40.1%), and 359 (10.5%) non-Swiss women.

In there were 19 live births to Swiss citizens and 9 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 19 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens remained the same while the foreign population increased by 8. There was 1 Swiss man, 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland to another country, 16 non-Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country and 11 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was a decrease of 3 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 46 people. This represents a population growth rate of 1.3%.

The age distribution, , in Sulgen is; 339 children or 9.9% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 466 teenagers or 13.6% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 495 people or 14.5% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 380 people or 11.1% are between 30 and 39, 578 people or 16.9% are between 40 and 49, and 448 people or 13.1% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 317 people or 9.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 215 people or 6.3% are between 70 and 79, there are 148 people or 4.3% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 34 people or 1.0% who are 90 and older.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.58 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.56 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 47.2% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...

 or a rent-to-own agreement).

, there were 1,273 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. there were 472 single family homes (or 78.4% of the total) out of a total of 602 inhabited buildings. There were 54 two family buildings (9.0%), 18 three family buildings (3.0%) and 58 multi-family buildings (or 9.6%). There were 705 (or 20.6%) persons who were part of a couple without children, and 2,030 (or 59.3%) who were part of a couple with children. There were 179 (or 5.2%) people who lived in single parent home, while there are 21 persons who were adult children living with one or both parents, 10 persons who lived in a household made up of relatives, 32 who lived in a household made up of unrelated persons, and 82 who are either institutionalized or live in another type of collective housing.

The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.29%. , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.2 new units per 1000 residents. there were 1,445 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 4 room apartment of which there were 411. There were 27 single room apartments and 290 apartments with six or more rooms. the average price to rent an average apartment in Sulgen was 933.73 Swiss franc
Swiss franc
The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...

s (CHF) per month (US$750, £420, €600 approx. exchange rate from 2000). The average rate for a one room apartment was 513.13 CHF (US$410, £230, €330), a two room apartment was about 664.98 CHF (US$530, £300, €430), a three room apartment was about 771.34 CHF (US$620, £350, €490) and a six or more room apartment cost an average of 1486.21 CHF (US$1190, £670, €950). The average apartment price in Sulgen was 83.7% of the national average of 1116 CHF.

In the 2007 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...

 the most popular party was the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 39.47% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP
Free Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (15.55%), the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...

 (14.47%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (11.39%). In the federal election, a total of 1,094 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 was 51.1%.

The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
1950 2,023
1960 2,066
1980 2,409
1990 3,036
2000 3,422

Economy

, Sulgen had an unemployment rate of 2.13%. , there were 121 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 43 businesses involved in this sector. 869 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 56 businesses in this sector. 650 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 111 businesses in this sector.

there were 2,341 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 1,093 or about 46.7% of the residents worked outside Sulgen while 1,021 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 2,269 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality. Of the working population, 11.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 49.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 1,094 or 32.0% were Roman Catholic, while 1,463 or 42.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
Swiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 Old Catholics (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...

  there are 31 individuals (or about 0.91% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 202 individuals (or about 5.90% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There were 285 (or about 8.33% of the population) who are Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. There are 19 individuals (or about 0.56% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 211 (or about 6.17% of the population) belong to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....

 or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, and 115 individuals (or about 3.36% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Sulgen about 69.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

Sulgen is home to the Sulgen primary school district. It is also home to the Sulgen secondary school district. In the 2008/2009 school year there are 316 students in the primary school district. There are 75 children in the kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

, and the average class size is 18.75 kindergartners. Of the children in kindergarten, 39 or 52.0% are female, 30 or 40.0% are not Swiss citizens and 37 or 49.3% do not speak German natively. The lower and upper primary levels begin at about age 5-6 and lasts for 6 years. There are 115 children in who are at the lower primary level and 126 children in the upper primary level. The average class size in the primary school is 18.58 students. At the lower primary level, there are 62 children or 53.9% of the total population who are female, 41 or 35.7% are not Swiss citizens and 45 or 39.1% do not speak German natively. In the upper primary level, there are 57 or 45.2% who are female, 31 or 24.6% are not Swiss citizens and 41 or 32.5% do not speak German natively.

In the secondary school district there are 261 students. At the secondary level, students are divided according to performance. The secondary level begins at about age 12 and usually lasts 3 years. There are 121 teenagers who are in the advanced school, of which 59 or 48.8% are female, 17 or 14.0% are not Swiss citizens and 21 or 17.4% do not speak German natively. There are 131 teenagers who are in the standard school, of which 65 or 49.6% are female, 35 or 26.7% are not Swiss citizens and 35 or 26.7% do not speak German natively. Finally, there are 9 teenagers who are in special or remedial classes, of which 4 or 44.4% are female, 6 or 66.7% are not Swiss citizens and 6 or 66.7% do not speak German natively. The average class size for all classes at the secondary level is 21 students.
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