Les Brenets is a former

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 canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2021 the former municipality of Les Brenets merged into

Le Locle Le Locle (; german: Luggli) is a municipality in the Canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It is situated in the Jura Mountains, a few kilometers from the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds. It is the third smallest city in Switzerland (in Switzerland ...

History

Les Brenets is first mentioned in 1325 as ''chiez le Bruignet''.

Geography

Les Brenets had an area, , of . Of this area, or 41.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 48.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 3.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.3% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.8%. Out of the forested land, 44.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.6% is used for growing crops and 25.5% is pastures and 14.7% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 3.5% is in lakes and 0.3% is in rivers and streams. The former municipality is located near Le Locle, on the northwestern slope of the Jura Mountains. The river

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.French border in the municipality. Lac des Brenets on the Doubs is located in the municipality.

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 ''Per fess by a bar chequy Or and Sable, in chief Gules a Chevron raised Argent, and in base Azure, a Waterfall falling from mountains with Pinetrees Vert''. The waterfall is the Doubs Falls (french: Le Saut du Doubs) on the river Doubs between

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and Switzerland.

Demographics

Les Brenets had a population (as of 2019) of 1,031. , 11.6% 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 -7.9%. It has changed at a rate of -7.2% due to migration and at a rate of 0.3% due to births and deaths.
accessed 21-October-2011 Most of the population () speaks French (1,106 or 95.0%) 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 (23 or 2.0%) 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 (18 or 1.5%). , the population was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. The population was made up of 473 Swiss men (43.4% of the population) and 59 (5.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 499 Swiss women (45.8%) and 58 (5.3%) 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, 342 or about 29.4% were born in Les Brenets and lived there in 2000. There were 382 or 32.8% who were born in the same canton, while 189 or 16.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 213 or 18.3% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.3%. , there were 416 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 584 married individuals, 81 widows or widowers and 83 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 482 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 142 households that consist of only one person and 32 households with five or more people. , a total of 461 apartments (84.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 56 apartments (10.2%) were seasonally occupied and 31 apartments (5.7%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 5.47%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1080 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:1531 from:start till:124 bar:1531 at:134 fontsize:S text: " 31 Hearths" shift:(8,5) bar:1750 from:start till:846 text:"846" bar:1850 from:start till:1172 text:"1,172" bar:1860 from:start till:1547 text:"1,547" bar:1870 from:start till:1528 text:"1,528" bar:1880 from:start till:1456 text:"1,456" bar:1888 from:start till:1367 text:"1,367" bar:1900 from:start till:1420 text:"1,420" bar:1910 from:start till:1455 text:"1,455" bar:1920 from:start till:1386 text:"1,386" bar:1930 from:start till:1404 text:"1,404" bar:1941 from:start till:1267 text:"1,267" bar:1950 from:start till:1381 text:"1,381" bar:1960 from:start till:1288 text:"1,288" bar:1970 from:start till:1327 text:"1,327" bar:1980 from:start till:1111 text:"1,111" bar:1990 from:start till:1118 text:"1,118" bar:2000 from:start till:1164 text:"1,164"

Sights

The entire village of Les Brenets is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites

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 SP which received 24.03% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (22.07%), the LPS Party (18.76%) and the PdA Party (15.91%). In the federal election, a total of 446 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 53.6%.

Economy

, Les Brenets had an unemployment rate of 5.2%. , there were 39 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 17 businesses involved in this sector. 749 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 24 businesses in this sector. 141 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 31 businesses in this sector. There were 574 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.8% 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 843. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 29, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 706 of which 697 or (98.7%) were in manufacturing and 4 (0.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 108. In the tertiary sector; 36 or 33.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 9.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 18 or 16.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 1.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 4.6% were in education and 30 or 27.8% were in health care. , there were 867 workers who commuted into the municipality and 349 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.5 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 43.1% of the workforce coming into Les Brenets are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 62% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 394 or 33.8% 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 475 or 40.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.17% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.17% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 39 individuals (or about 3.35% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 10 (or about 0.86% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 person who was

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 ...

and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 204 (or about 17.53% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 54 individuals (or about 4.64% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Les Brenets about 461 or (39.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 113 or (9.7%) 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 113 who completed tertiary schooling, 59.3% were Swiss men, 25.7% were Swiss women, 8.8% were non-Swiss men and 6.2% 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 was one kindergarten class with a total of 23 students in Les Brenets. In the same year, there were 3 primary classes with a total of 60 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 accessed 17 October 2011 , there were 2 students in Les Brenets who came from another municipality, while 113 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

*
Official website of Les Brenets

Website of the french ship company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brenets Former municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel