Cornaux is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel.

History

Cornaux is first mentioned in 1212 as ''Curnaul''.

Geography

Cornaux has an area, , of . Of this area, or 45.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 22.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 31.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 9.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 4.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.7%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 7.2% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 20.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 35.2% is used for growing crops and 5.7% is pastures, while 4.9% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located at the foot of the Jura Mountains. It was part of the Neuchâtel district until the district level was eliminated on 1 January 2018.

Coat of arms

The

blazon 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. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vi ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

is ''Azure, a Sun in splendour Or, in chief two Trefoils Argent.''

Demographics

Cornaux has a population () of . , 19.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 3.6%. It has changed at a rate of 0.1% due to migration and at a rate of 3.8% due to births and deaths.
accessed 24-October-2011 Most of the population () speaks French (1,286 or 87.3%) as their first language,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

is the second most common (76 or 5.2%) and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

is the third (31 or 2.1%). There are 2 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 50.1% male and 49.9% female. The population was made up of 589 Swiss men (38.6% of the population) and 175 (11.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 636 Swiss women (41.7%) and 126 (8.3%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Neuchatel Statistics
''République et canton de Neuchâtel - Recensement annuel de la population'' accessed 13 October 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 357 or about 24.2% were born in Cornaux and lived there in 2000. There were 416 or 28.2% who were born in the same canton, while 377 or 25.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 281 or 19.1% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 63.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 11.2%. , there were 590 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 739 married individuals, 71 widows or widowers and 73 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 603 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 179 households that consist of only one person and 34 households with five or more people. , a total of 594 apartments (94.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 23 apartments (3.7%) were seasonally occupied and 12 apartments (1.9%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 12.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.43%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1600 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1750 from:start till:308 text:"308" bar:1850 from:start till:459 text:"459" bar:1860 from:start till:469 text:"469" bar:1870 from:start till:386 text:"386" bar:1880 from:start till:401 text:"401" bar:1888 from:start till:469 text:"469" bar:1900 from:start till:522 text:"522" bar:1910 from:start till:514 text:"514" bar:1920 from:start till:464 text:"464" bar:1930 from:start till:460 text:"460" bar:1941 from:start till:402 text:"402" bar:1950 from:start till:405 text:"405" bar:1960 from:start till:521 text:"521" bar:1970 from:start till:1112 text:"1,112" bar:1980 from:start till:1255 text:"1,255" bar:1990 from:start till:1545 text:"1,545" bar:2000 from:start till:1473 text:"1,473"

Heritage sites of national significance

The

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

and

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

sites at the Ensemble De La Vieille and the gardens of Souaillon Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Politics

In the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not ...

the most popular party was the SVP which received 25.45% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (25.12%), the FDP (24.1%) and the LPS Party (9.54%). In the federal election, a total of 497 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

was 50.7%.

Economy

Its main industrial employers are a refinery, vineyards and a cement factory. , Cornaux had an unemployment rate of 5.4%. , there were 20 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 212 people were employed in the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...

and there were 22 businesses in this sector. 230 people were employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, with 50 businesses in this sector. There were 802 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.8% of the workforce. the total number of

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a ...

jobs was 413. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 14, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 201 of which 179 or (89.1%) were in manufacturing and 12 (6.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 198. In the tertiary sector; 98 or 49.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 7 or 3.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 11 or 5.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 2.5% were in the information industry, 22 or 11.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 6 or 3.0% were in education and 3 or 1.5% were in health care. , there were 387 workers who commuted into the municipality and 624 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 1.6% of the workforce coming into Cornaux are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 10.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 69.5% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 471 or 32.0% were

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

, while 594 or 40.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.14% of the population), there were 14 individuals (or about 0.95% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 119 individuals (or about 8.08% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 33 (or about 2.24% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 6 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. 228 (or about 15.48% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 63 individuals (or about 4.28% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Cornaux about 617 or (41.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 136 or (9.2%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 136 who completed tertiary schooling, 60.3% were Swiss men, 16.9% were Swiss women, 16.2% were non-Swiss men and 6.6% were non-Swiss women. In the canton of Neuchâtel most municipalities provide two years of non-mandatory

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

, 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 1.5 kindergarten classes with a total of 30 students in Cornaux. In the same year, there were 5 primary classes with a total of 84 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 accessed 17 October 2011 , there was one student in Cornaux who came from another municipality, while 149 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Neuchâtel