Le Cerneux-Péquignot
Encyclopedia
Le Cerneux-Péquignot is a municipality
in the district of Le Locle in the canton
of Neuchâtel in Switzerland
.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 36.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 35.2% is pastures and 19.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.
The municipality is located in the Le Locle district, at an elevation of 1070 metres (3,510.5 ft). It consists of the village of Le Cerneux-Péquignot, near the French
border, along with a number of scattered hamlets
and farm houses.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Between four, one in dexter and three in sinister, Pine trees Vert, issuant from Base of the same a Plough Sable.
Most of the population speaks French
(300 or 95.8%) as their first language, German
is the second most common (8 or 2.6%) and Portuguese
is the third (3 or 1.0%).
, the population was 53.1% male and 46.9% female. The population was made up of 167 Swiss men (51.5% of the population) and 5 (1.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 145 Swiss women (44.8%) and 7 (2.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 141 or about 45.0% were born in Le Cerneux-Péquignot and lived there in 2000. There were 99 or 31.6% who were born in the same canton, while 42 or 13.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 20 or 6.4% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 26.2% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 58.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15%.
, there were 120 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 170 married individuals, 17 widows or widowers and 6 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 115 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 21 households that consist of only one person and 14 households with five or more people. , a total of 109 apartments (86.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 14 apartments (11.1%) were seasonally occupied and 3 apartments (2.4%) were empty.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the SVP
which received 27.35% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party
(24.22%), the Green Party
(15.65%) and the SP
(11.56%). In the federal election, a total of 155 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 62.5%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 80. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 36, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 26, all of which were in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 18. In the tertiary sector; 4 or 22.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 22.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 2 or 11.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 3 or 16.7% were in education.
, there were 24 workers who commuted into the municipality and 70 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 29.2% of the workforce coming into Le Cerneux-Péquignot are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 5.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 44.1% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church
and 1 individual who was Islam
ic. 40 (or about 12.78% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 14 individuals (or about 4.47% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 21 who completed tertiary schooling, 76.2% were Swiss men, 19.0% were Swiss women.
In the canton of Neuchâtel most municipalities provide two years of non-mandatory kindergarten
, followed by five years of mandatory primary education. The next four years of mandatory secondary education is provided at thirteen larger secondary schools, which many students travel out of their home municipality to attend. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 0.5 kindergarten classes with a total of 6 students in Le Cerneux-Péquignot. In the same year, there were 1.5 primary classes with a total of 22 students.
, there was one student in Le Cerneux-Péquignot who came from another municipality, while 31 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...
in the district of Le Locle in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
of Neuchâtel in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
History
Le Cerneux-Péquignot is first mentioned in the 13th century in connection with the Pequignot of Montlebon family.Geography
Le Cerneux-Péquignot has an area, , of 15.7 square kilometre. Of this area, 8.61 square kilometre or 54.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.34 square kilometre or 40.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.45 square kilometre or 2.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and 0.24 square kilometre or 1.5% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 36.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 35.2% is pastures and 19.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.
The municipality is located in the Le Locle district, at an elevation of 1070 metres (3,510.5 ft). It consists of the village of Le Cerneux-Péquignot, near the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
border, along with a number of scattered hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
and farm houses.
Coat of arms
The blazonBlazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...
of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is Between four, one in dexter and three in sinister, Pine trees Vert, issuant from Base of the same a Plough Sable.
Demographics
Le Cerneux-Péquignot has a population of . , 2.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 2.5%. It has changed at a rate of -0.9% due to migration and at a rate of 5% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
(300 or 95.8%) as their first language, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
is the second most common (8 or 2.6%) and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
is the third (3 or 1.0%).
, the population was 53.1% male and 46.9% female. The population was made up of 167 Swiss men (51.5% of the population) and 5 (1.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 145 Swiss women (44.8%) and 7 (2.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 141 or about 45.0% were born in Le Cerneux-Péquignot and lived there in 2000. There were 99 or 31.6% who were born in the same canton, while 42 or 13.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 20 or 6.4% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 26.2% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 58.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15%.
, there were 120 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 170 married individuals, 17 widows or widowers and 6 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 115 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 21 households that consist of only one person and 14 households with five or more people. , a total of 109 apartments (86.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 14 apartments (11.1%) were seasonally occupied and 3 apartments (2.4%) were empty.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Politics
In the 2007 federal electionSwiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
the most popular party was the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
which received 27.35% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party
Liberal Party of Switzerland
The Liberal Party of Switzerland was a party with economically liberal policies. It was known as a party of the upper class. On 1 January 2009 it merged with the larger Free Democratic Party to establish FDP.The Liberals....
(24.22%), the Green Party
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...
(15.65%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(11.56%). In the federal election, a total of 155 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was 62.5%.
Economy
, Le Cerneux-Péquignot had an unemployment rate of 1.9%. , there were 48 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 20 businesses involved in this sector. 28 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 6 businesses in this sector. 24 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 10 businesses in this sector. There were 152 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.1% of the workforce.the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...
jobs was 80. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 36, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 26, all of which were in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 18. In the tertiary sector; 4 or 22.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 22.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 2 or 11.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 3 or 16.7% were in education.
, there were 24 workers who commuted into the municipality and 70 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 29.2% of the workforce coming into Le Cerneux-Péquignot are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 5.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 44.1% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 171 or 54.6% were Roman Catholic, while 86 or 27.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed ChurchSwiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...
. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
and 1 individual who was Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic. 40 (or about 12.78% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, and 14 individuals (or about 4.47% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Le Cerneux-Péquignot about 115 or (36.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 21 or (6.7%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a FachhochschuleFachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...
). Of the 21 who completed tertiary schooling, 76.2% were Swiss men, 19.0% were Swiss women.
In the canton of Neuchâtel most municipalities provide two years of non-mandatory kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
, followed by five years of mandatory primary education. The next four years of mandatory secondary education is provided at thirteen larger secondary schools, which many students travel out of their home municipality to attend. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 0.5 kindergarten classes with a total of 6 students in Le Cerneux-Péquignot. In the same year, there were 1.5 primary classes with a total of 22 students.
, there was one student in Le Cerneux-Péquignot who came from another municipality, while 31 residents attended schools outside the municipality.