Characteristics of the current peri-urban area and its dwellers dwellers

Where the main focus in this chapter lies on the characteristics of the in-migrants to the Swiss peri-urban area, the characteristics of the current dwellers should not be overlooked. In this first section of Chapter 4 the focus therefore lies on the characteristics of the current peri-urban dwellers in Switzerland.

For the current dwellers it is not known whether they have lived 2 or 10 years in the peri-urban area and therefore we only have a cross-sectional view of the population. However, maybe their characteristics have changed from the time of the move until now. A look at the current population will thus provide an additional point of view on the peri-urban population. It furthermore allows for a

comparison with the characteristics at the time of the move: who are the dwellers now and how do they compare with the in-migrants?

Furthermore, it is of interest to find out to which extent the characteristics of the peri-urban dwellers and settlers are different from the other territorial types: do the peri-urban dwellers really portray a specific set of characteristics. This is addressed in this section by comparing the peri-urban with (some of) the other eight Swiss territorial types.

A look at the population pyramids of some of the territorial types shows that the age structure of the peri-urban population differs from the other territorial types (Figure 4-1). The population per age in 2000 is mainly made up of children between the ages of 0 and 20 years old and individuals between the ages of 30 to 60. Compared to the total Swiss population and the centres, the peri-urban area contains more children and individuals between the ages of 40 to 60, but has fewer people in the age group 20 to 40. When compared with the suburban and rural-commuter population, no large differences appear, the suburban area has slightly more people in the 20 to 30 age group.

In 2012 the differences between the peri-urban and Swiss population have become smaller, however the peri-urban population still has fewer individuals in the 20 to 40 year age group (Figure 4-2). The difference with the centres has become slightly more prominent as it can be clearly seen that the 20 to 40 year age group is much more prominent in the centres than the peri-urban area. Individuals around the age of 30 are less present in the peri-peri-urban than the suburban area. The populations of the peri-urban and rural-commuter area are more or less identical.

Figure 4-1: Population pyramids of a selection of municipal types, 2000 (per 10’000 population)

Source: Office fédéral de la statistique (2000d), calculations by author

100 50 0 50 100

Figure 4-2: Population pyramids of a selection of municipal types, 2012 (per 10’000 population)

Source: Office fédéral de la statistique (2012e), calculations by author

As in Switzerland the migration from abroad also plays a considerable role (Office fédéral de la statistique 1980, 1990, 2000b), as also seen in the residential trajectories of the Saint-Cerguois, the place of birth and the nationality of the current dwellers in all the territorial types are compared.

100 50 0 50 100

Of the current population dwelling within the different territorial types the large majority is born in Switzerland and possesses the Swiss nationality (Table 4-1). There are however some types that are more affected by international migration than others; the centres, suburban, rich and tourist areas are mostly affected, showing elevated figures when looking at the percentage of residents born abroad and possessing another nationality than the Swiss one. The peri-urban area is less affected⁵².

The majority of the current peri-urban inhabitants are married and this territorial type also shows the highest percentage of married individuals, followed by the rural-commuters. Besides the centres, where the majority of the inhabitants are single, all territorial types show a majority of married individuals (Table 4-2).

Table 4-1: Place of birth and nationality per municipal type (percentages), 2012 Born in

Industrial-tertiary 78.15 21.85 92.20 7.80

Rural-commuters 84.41 15.59 93.83 6.17

Agriculture-mixed 86.35 13.65 95.05 4.95

Agriculture 91.82 8.18 96.96 3.04

Source: Office fédéral de la statistique (2012c), calculations by author

Table 4-2: Civil status per municipal type (percentages), 2012

Single Married Alone

Source: Office fédéral de la statistique (2012d), calculations by author

This larger proportion of singles in the centres reappears when looking at household types, as the largest proportion of households in the centres consist of one person (Table 4-3). The suburban, rich and tourist area also portray large percentages of one person households. Within the peri-urban area the majority of the household contains nuclear families, followed by couples. This is also the

52 The values presented in all the tables in section 4.1 have been submitted to a chi-square test which indicates that repartition of the percentages over the different categories are significantly different between the different territorial types.

case for the industrial-tertiary, rural-commuters, agriculture-mixed and agriculture areas.

In the areas where nuclear families are prominent, we also find large proportions of villa housing. Whereas this type of housing is also prominent in the centres, the suburban, the rich and the tourist area, the difference compared to multi-unit housing is much smaller than in the other territorial types (Table 4-4).

Table 4-3: Households types by municipal type (percentages), 2000 One

person Couples Nuclear Single

parent At home Complex

Centres 44.6 23.8 20.5 5.2 0.6 5.3

Suburban 33.3 28.1 29.4 5.4 0.6 3.2

Rich 32.9 30.0 27.9 5.1 0.6 3.5

Peri-urban 26.0 29.9 35.5 4.9 0.7 3.1

Tourist 34.8 25.8 28.0 4.5 1.0 5.8

Industrial-tertiary 30.1 27.2 33.4 4.8 0.9 3.5

Rural-commuters 26.0 28.6 36.7 4.5 1.0 3.2

Agriculture-mixed 26.3 27.0 37.6 4.2 1.1 3.8

Agriculture 26.0 26.9 36.7 4.2 1.7 4.5

Source: Office fédéral de la statistique (2000c), calculations by author

Table 4-4: Housing types per municipal type (percentages), 2012 Villas

Multi-unit housing

Residential buildings with annexe use

Buildings with partial residential use

Centres 41.2 37.2 15.0 6.6

Suburban 58.5 28.5 8.9 4.1

Rich 64.6 25.0 7.5 2.9

Peri-urban 71.1 18.2 7.7 2.9

Tourist 49.8 34.6 8.8 6.7

Industrial-tertiary 61.2 21.6 11.7 5.6

Rural-commuters 65.6 17.8 12.9 3.7

Agriculture-mixed 57.3 18.8 18.6 5.3

Agriculture 48.8 15.5 29.5 6.2

Source: Office fédéral de la statistique (2011a), calculations by author

The current peri-urban dwellers are thus mainly between the ages 0 and 20 years of age and between 40 and 60 years of age. This is a very similar distribution as shown by the rural-commuter population. In addition, the peri-urban population is largely Swiss born and has the Swiss nationality, in which it compares more to the more rural areas that the urban areas. Furthermore, the peri-urban population is married, lives in a nuclear household mostly in villas.

With regards to the former two characteristics the peri-urban population is comparable to the other more rural territorial types.

4.2 Characteristics of the peri-urban settlers at the time