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 (1816) 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 (buildings or roads), 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
Carouge has a population () of . , 37.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 21%. It has changed at a rate of 15.6% due to migration and at a rate of 5.1% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (13,700 or 77.9%), with Portuguese being second most common (921 or 5.2%) and Italian being third (846 or 4.8%). There are 567 people who speak German and 9 people who speak Romansh.
, the gender distribution of the population was 47.9% male and 52.1% female. The population was made up of 5,775 Swiss men (28.7% of the population) and 3,868 (19.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 6,887 Swiss women (34.2%) and 3,586 (17.8%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 3,489 or about 19.8% were born in Carouge and lived there in 2000. There were 3,845 or 21.9% who were born in the same canton, while 2,653 or 15.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 6,668 or 37.9% were born outside of Switzerland.
The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 195 and the non-Swiss population increased by 427 people. This represents a population growth rate of 3.3%.
The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 65.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.4%. , there were 7,867 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 7,452 married individuals, 881 widows or widowers and 1,390 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 8,121 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2 persons per household. There were 3,619 households that consist of only one person and 268 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 8,366 households that answered this question, 43.3% were households made up of just one person and there were 38 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 1,731 married couples without children, 1,958 married couples with children. There were 625 single parents with a child or children. There were 150 households that were made up of unrelated people and 245 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 145 single family homes (or 14.6% of the total) out of a total of 995 inhabited buildings. There were 349 multi-family buildings (35.1%), along with 384 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (38.6%) and 117 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (11.8%). Of the single family homes 57 were built before 1919, while 11 were built between 1990 and 2000.
