Concept
Onex (ɔne; Ônèx) is a municipality in the canton of Geneva in Switzerland. Onex is first mentioned in 1292 as Onay. It became an independent municipality in 1851 when the municipality of Onex-Confignon split into the two municipalities of Onex and Confignon. Until the 1960s the municipality remained a relatively small agricultural village. This changed when, at the urging of the canton, it sold approximately to the Cité-Nouvelle Foundation to build public housing. The Foundation built a number of nine to fifteen story apartment blocks on the land to help relieve a housing shortfall in Geneva. The Cité-Nouvelle was one of the first high density housing blocks on the outskirts of Geneva. Between 1950 and 1970 the population increased from less than 1000 to over 13,000. With the population growth, the village economy changed from primarily agricultural to a commuter and service economy. In 2000 about 90% of the population commuted to jobs outside the municipality and by 2005 about 90% of the jobs in the municipality were in the service sector. Onex has an area, , of . Of this area, or 6.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 13.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 77.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 3.5% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 51.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 13.5%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 12.8%. Out of the forested land, 12.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.1% is used for growing crops and 3.9% is pastures, while 1.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located on the left bank of the Rhone river. The municipality of Onex consists of the sub-sections or villages of Cressy - Marais, Evaux, Cité-Nouvelle, Gros-Chêne, Pré-Longet, Belle-Cour and Onex - village. Onex has a population () of . , 33.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
