Bottens is a municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Bottens is first mentioned in 1142 as Botens. Geography Bottens has an area, , of . Of this area, or 72.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 20.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.6% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.5%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 50.8% is used for growing crops and 20.6% is pastures. The municipality was part of the Echallens District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Bottens became part of the new district of Gros-de-Vaud. The municipality is located south-west of Echallens in the Gros-de-Vaud region. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules on a bend Argent a lion Sable. Demographics Bottens has a population () of . , 10.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 17.9%. It has changed at a rate of 12.3% due to migration and at a rate of 6.1% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (853 or 93.0%), with German being second most common (30 or 3.3%) and Portuguese being third (11 or 1.2%). There are 7 people who speak Italian. Of the population in the municipality 267 or about 29.1% were born in Bottens and lived there in 2000. There were 391 or 42.6% who were born in the same canton, while 136 or 14.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 102 or 11.1% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 6 live births to Swiss citizens and 2 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 6 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens remained the same while the foreign population increased by 1. There was 1 Swiss man who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 3 non-Swiss men and 6 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including