Bulle is a town of over 26,000 inhabitants, capital of the Gruyère district in the canton of Fribourg. The present-day commune, at an altitude of 771 meters, is the result of the merger between Bulle and La Tour-de-Trême in 2006.

Bulle is a town in the countryside. It concentrates all the services and amenities of a large city in a human-sized area close to an unspoilt environment. The new Bulle is a young, attractive and dynamic economic hub at the service of the region's development, ideally situated between Berne and the Lake Geneva region. A rich fabric of associations provides the population with a high-quality cultural, sports, leisure and entertainment offering. With high-level training facilities, mobility and urban planning redesigned to promote quality of life, strong integration capabilities, a multicultural richness as well as a preserved environment and landscape, Bulle has many assets.

The arrival of the H189 bypass road in December 2009, the introduction of agglomeration public transport and the RER, traffic calming measures and the redevelopment of town centers in Bulle and La Tour-de-Trême now offer new prospects for directing the commune's sustainable development towards quality of life for all its citizens.

Until the late 1970s, Bulle still had the face of a small country town. Over the past 30 years, the face of the town has undergone a profound transformation. The arrival of the freeway in 1981 put the town close to major centers and opened up an entire region. This major event triggered tremendous demographic growth - one of the strongest in Switzerland - as well as economic growth. In 1983, Bulle and La Tour-de-Trême had just 10,000 inhabitants between them. Today, the established population numbers over 27,000.

This growth is marked by strong industrialization in the fields of machinery, iron, construction, wood and, today, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Regional companies native to Bulle grew and developed alongside multinationals. Basic infrastructures were built, and the overall offering for the population expanded over the years, particularly in terms of education, health, social services, sports and culture. This take-off was encouraged by the authorities' resolute choice of a policy favoring regional economic development.

The emergence of a burgeoning urban character was reinforced at the turn of the millennium. In 2004, according to a study by IDHEAP and L'Hebdo, Bulle was parachuted into 1st place among French-speaking towns where life is good. It even ranked 3rd nationally, ahead of Zug and Zurich. In terms of dynamism, Bulle also ranks highly among French-speaking towns according to a February 2010 study by Bilan magazine. It came 4th after Nyon, Montreux and Ecublens in terms of socio-economic conditions, job creation in construction and housing costs and, finally, income and social stability.

Thus, from a town where everyone knows everyone else, Bulle is learning to experience more globalized and less intimate relationships between its inhabitants. Citizen relations are evolving, as they must now integrate the dimensions of mixed and multicultural living. The sharp rise in the number of Swiss and foreign migrants in recent years is undoubtedly an important factor, and has changed the way residents perceive their own city. This diversified, constant demographic growth, which has tended to accelerate in recent years, is also an indicator, marking the city's strong attractiveness.

Population of the City of Bulle: statistics

Altitude
Bulle TPF station: 771 meters
Highest point: 1,170 meters
Lowest point: 730 meters

Area
2,387 hectares, of which 498 are forest (excluding the Bouleyres forest, which is state-owned, but on municipal territory).