Concept
Meyrin (mɛʁɛ̃) is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. The main site of CERN, the European particle physics research organisation, is in Meyrin. Meyrin was originally a small agricultural village until the 1950s, when construction of CERN began just to the north. It is now a commuter town dominated with apartment high-rises, and many of its residents work at CERN or in central Geneva. Geneva International Airport is partially located within Meyrin. Meyrin is first mentioned in 1153 as Mairin. Meyrin has an area, , of . Of this area, or 35.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 4.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 59.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.8% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 11.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 17.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 25.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.5%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 28.5% is used for growing crops and 4.8% is pastures, while 2.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. The municipality is located on the right bank of the Rhone river and consists of the sub-sections or villages of CERN, Maisonnex, Mategnin, Citadelle, Aéroport - Tour-de-Contrôle, Aéroport - Papillons, Aéroport - Forestier, Cointrin - Les Sapins, Cointrin - Les Ailes, Cointrin - Pré-Bois, ZI Riantbosson. Meyrin has a population () of . , 41.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 13.7%. It has changed at a rate of 7.5% due to migration and at a rate of 6.3% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (14,320 or 73.3%), with German being second most common (817 or 4.2%) and Italian being third (809 or 4.1%). There are 12 people who speak Romansh. the gender distribution of the population was 49.
