Thonex
Description
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.
History
In 1869 the municipality was created when Chêne-Thônex split into two independent municipalities Chêne-Bourg and Thônex.
Geography
Thônex has an area, as of 2009, of 3.84 square km. Of this area, 0.87 km2 (0.34 sq mi) or 22.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.17 km2 (0.066 sq mi) or 4.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.74 km2 (1.06 sq mi) or 71.4% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.05 km2 (12 acres) 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.
Twin Town
Thônex is twinned with the town of Graveson, France.
Religion
From the 2000 census, 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 (or about 1.26% of the population), there were 33 individuals (or about 0.27% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 219 individuals (or about 1.80% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 110 individuals (or about 0.91% of the population) who were Jewish, and 464 (or about 3.82% of the population) 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 (or about 22.72% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 1,026 individuals (or about 8.45% of the population) did not answer the question.