Carouge


Carouge is a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.

History

Carouge is first mentioned in the Early Middle Ages as Quadruvium and Quatruvio. In 1248 it was mentioned as Carrogium while in the 14th century it was known as Quarrouiz or Quarroggi. In 1445 it was mentioned as Quaroggio. The current city was built by Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy, starting in 1760–70. It obtained the status of city in 1786.
Carouge was taken by revolutionary France in 1792, apparently with considerable local support. During the Napoleonic wars, in 1814 Carouge was reincorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia following a brief occupation by Austria. The Treaty of Turin transferred Carouge to the Canton of Geneva and it therefore became part of the Swiss Confederation.

Geography

Carouge has an area,, of. Of this area, or 4.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 8.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 83.3% is settled, or 1.5% is either rivers or lakes.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 18.5% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 31.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 20.7%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 4.1% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 8.1%. Out of the forested land, 6.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.3% is used for growing crops and 1.5% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located south of the Rhone and Arve rivers.

Demographics

NationalityAmount% total
Portugal

Heritage sites of national significance

The Archives of Carouge is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Carouge is listed in the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 20.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Green Party, the SVP and the FDP. In the federal election, a total of 4,482 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.6%.
For the 2009 Conseil d'Etat election, there were a total of 9,805 registered voters of which 4,612 voted.

Economy

, Carouge had an unemployment rate of 9.3%., there were people employed in the primary economic sector and about businesses involved in this sector. 3,414 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 320 businesses in this sector. 18,003 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 1,492 businesses in this sector. There were 9,073 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 46.5% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 18,636. The number of jobs in the primary sector was, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3,272 of which 1,612 or were in manufacturing and 1,599 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 15,364. In the tertiary sector; 2,536 or 16.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 594 or 3.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 590 or 3.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 903 or 5.9% were in the information industry, 3,319 or 21.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 2,859 or 18.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 723 or 4.7% were in education and 1,219 or 7.9% were in health care.
, there were 18,589 workers who commuted into the municipality and 6,612 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.8 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 16.7% of the workforce coming into Carouge are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.1% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 32.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 36.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the, 7,816 or 44.4% were Roman Catholic, while 2,381 or 13.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 221 members of an Orthodox church, there were 57 individuals who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 244 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There were 75 individuals who were Jewish, and 643 who were Islamic. There were 52 individuals who were Buddhist, 16 individuals who were Hindu and 37 individuals who belonged to another church. 4,306 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 1,742 individuals did not answer the question.

Sports and sights

is the football club and they currently play in the Swiss Challenge League. There is an outdoor Olympic swimming pool known as Piscine de la Fontenette and the indoor Piscine des Pervenches. Carouge has a museum, the Musée de Carouge, the cinema, Bio 72, which exclusively plays indie films; and a popular theatre, the Théâtre de Carouge-Atelier de Genève. Arve river, which borders Carouge from the north-east, has a walking and cycling path running along it. Carouge also has a free bicycle rental station, at Place de l'Octroi.

Education

In Carouge about 5,230 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 3,244 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 3,244 who completed tertiary schooling, 37.3% were Swiss men, 33.7% were Swiss women, 16.3% were non-Swiss men and 12.8% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2009–2010 school year there were a total of 3,816 students in the Carouge school system. The education system in the Canton of Geneva allows young children to attend two years of non-obligatory Kindergarten. During that school year, there were 377 children who were in a pre-kindergarten class. The canton's school system provides two years of non-mandatory kindergarten and requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In Carouge there were 619 students in kindergarten or primary school and 83 students were in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 619 lower secondary students who attended school in Carouge. There were 866 upper secondary students from the municipality along with 217 students who were in a professional, non-university track program. An additional 135 students attended a private school.
, there were 1,577 students in Carouge who came from another municipality, while 1,012 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Notable residents