Thônex


Thônex is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It is situated in the east of the canton and shares a border with the French town of Ambilly.
WWW Official Site

History

In 1869 the municipality was created when Chêne-Thônex split into two independent municipalities Chêne-Bourg and Thônex.

Geography

Thônex has an area,, of. Of this area, or 22.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 4.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 71.4% is settled, or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 53.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 11.5%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.6%. Out of the forested land, 2.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 18.2% is used for growing crops and 3.1% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality of Thônex consists of the sub-sections or villages of Belle-Idée, Les Sillons, Communaux d'Ambilly, Le Foron, Pierre-à-Bochet, Moillesulaz, Deux-Communes, Adrien-JEANDIN, Sous-Moulin - Les Verchères, Thônex - église, Villette.

Demographics

NationalityAmount% total
Portugal

Twin Town

Thônex is twinned with Graveson, France.

Politics

Like all municipalities in the canton of Geneva, the political authorities of Thônex consist of an Administrative Council and a Municipal Council, composed of three and twenty-seven citizens respectively, elected for four years. At the last municipal elections which took place in the spring of 2007, foreigners residing in the Canton of Geneva for eight years or more could vote.
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 24.02% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP, the LPS Party and the Green Party. In the federal election, a total of 3,391 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.1%.
In the 2009 Grand Conseil election, there were a total of 7,039 registered voters of which 2,932 voted. The most popular party in the municipality for this election was the Libéral with 21.3% of the ballots. In the canton-wide election they received the highest proportion of votes. The second most popular party was the MCG, they were third in the canton-wide election, while the third most popular party was the Les Verts, they were second in the canton-wide election.
For the 2009 Conseil d'Etat election, there were a total of 7,013 registered voters of which 3,376 voted.
In 2011, all the municipalities held local elections, and in Thônex there were 27 spots open on the municipal council. There were a total of 9,409 registered voters of which 3,831 voted. Out of the 3,831 votes, there were 13 blank votes, 12 null or unreadable votes and 223 votes with a name that was not on the list.

Economy

, Thônex had an unemployment rate of 6.9%., there were 8 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 1,282 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 88 businesses in this sector. 3,633 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 328 businesses in this sector. There were 5,675 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.8% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 4,316. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 4, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 1,237 of which 831 or were in manufacturing and 396 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 3,075. In the tertiary sector; 280 or 9.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 42 or 1.4% were in the movement and storage of goods, 110 or 3.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 57 or 1.9% were in the information industry, 43 or 1.4% were the insurance or financial industry, 248 or 8.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 231 or 7.5% were in education and 1,688 or 54.9% were in health care.
, there were 4,372 workers who commuted into the municipality and 4,616 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 25.3% of the workforce coming into Thônex are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.1% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 29.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 50% used a private car.

Religion

From the, 5,154 or 42.5% were Roman Catholic, while 2,156 or 17.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 153 members of an Orthodox church, there were 33 individuals who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 219 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There were 110 individuals who were Jewish, and 464 who were Islamic. There were 39 individuals who were Buddhist, 2 individuals who were Hindu and 26 individuals who belonged to another church. 2,759 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 1,026 individuals did not answer the question.

Education

In Thônex about 3,546 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 2,281 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 2,281 who completed tertiary schooling, 40.0% were Swiss men, 33.4% were Swiss women, 15.4% were non-Swiss men and 11.2% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2009–2010 school year there were a total of 2,816 students in the Thônex 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 131 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 Thônex there were 487 students in kindergarten or primary school and 50 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 487 lower secondary students who attended school in Thônex. There were 708 upper secondary students from the municipality along with 132 students who were in a professional, non-university track program. An additional 293 students attended a private school.
, there were 431 students in Thônex who came from another municipality, while 1,022 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Sport

CS Chênois is the municipality's football club.

Notable people