Penthalaz is a municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Penthalaz is first mentioned in 1182 as Pentala. Geography Penthalaz has an area, , of . Of this area, or 55.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 16.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 25.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 12.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.0%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 15.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 47.0% is used for growing crops and 7.2% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality was part of the Cossonay District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Penthalaz became part of the new district of Gros-de-Vaud. The municipality is located along the left bank of the Venoge river. It consists of the village of Penthalaz, the working-class neighborhood Sous la Ville, the residential neighborhood Bellevue and the industrial zone Cossonay-Gare. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Azure and Or, overall a Bend wavy Argent, two Mining-wheels counterchanged. Demographics Penthalaz has a population () of . , 20.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 25.7%. It has changed at a rate of 27.4% due to migration and at a rate of -1.1% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (2,000 or 87.6%), with German being second most common (64 or 2.8%) and Portuguese being third (53 or 2.3%). There are 47 people who speak Italian. Of the population in the municipality 465 or about 20.4% were born in Penthalaz and lived there in 2000. There were 993 or 43.5% who were born in the same canton, while 319 or 14.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 445 or 19.5% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 22 live births to Swiss citizens and 8 births to non-Swiss citizens,