Les Planchettes 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
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative division terminology
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and ent ...
of
Neuchâtel
, neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier
, twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...
in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
History
Les Planchettes is first mentioned in 1455 as ''Les Planchotes''.
[
]
Geography
Les Planchettes has an area, , of . Of this area, or 37.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 56.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.6% 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, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 52.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.3% is used for growing crops and 22.6% is pastures and 14.6% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 1.8% is in lakes and 0.8% is in rivers and streams.[
The municipality is located north of La Chaux-de-Fonds. The municipality stretches from the ]Doubs river
The Doubs (; frp, Dubs; german: Dub) is a river in far eastern France which strays into western Switzerland. It is a left-bank tributary of the Saône. It rises near Mouthe in the western Jura mountains, at and its mouth is at Verdun-sur-l ...
to the northern slope of the Pouillerel. It was located in the district of La Chaux-de-Fonds
La Chaux-de-Fonds () is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city loc ...
, 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 vis ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
is ''Chevron rised Argent, and Argent an inscription 1812 Sable''. 1812 refers to the foundation of the municipality.
Demographics
Les Planchettes has a population () of . , 6.4% 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 0.4%. It has changed at a rate of -8.7% due to migration and at a rate of 9.1% due to births and deaths.
accessed 21-October-2011French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
(205 or 91.1%) 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
**Ger ...
is the second most common (16 or 7.1%) and Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
is the third (2 or 0.9%). There is 1 person who speaks 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 ...
.[
, the population was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. The population was made up of 100 Swiss men (45.2% of the population) and 8 (3.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 109 Swiss women (49.3%) and 4 (1.8%) non-Swiss women.][Canton of Neuchatel Statistics](_blank)
''République et canton de Neuchâtel - Recensement annuel de la population'' accessed 13 October 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 71 or about 31.6% were born in Les Planchettes and lived there in 2000. There were 89 or 39.6% who were born in the same canton, while 43 or 19.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 14 or 6.2% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 34.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 9.3%.][
, there were 105 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 105 married individuals, 9 widows or widowers and 6 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 72 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household.[ There were 16 households that consist of only one person and 11 households with five or more people. , a total of 72 apartments (63.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 37 apartments (32.5%) were seasonally occupied and 5 apartments (4.4%) were empty.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
The historical population is given in the following chart:
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 i ...
the most popular party was the SVP which received 31.06% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (20.96%), the Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
(12.63%) and the PdA Party (12.12%). In the federal election, a total of 83 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 Unive ...
was 50.9%.
Economy
, Les Planchettes had an unemployment rate of 6.5%. , there were 27 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 14 businesses involved in this sector. 10 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 construction. ...
and there was 1 business in this sector. 12 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 3 businesses in this sector.[ There were 108 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.0% 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 employee, employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to me ...
jobs was 39. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 20, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 10, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 9. In the tertiary sector; 6 or 66.7% were in a hotel or restaurant.
, there were 10 workers who commuted into the municipality and 62 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 6.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.9% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 48 or 21.3% 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 lette ...
, while 114 or 50.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 6 individuals (or about 2.67% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic. 44 (or about 19.56% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
or atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and 15 individuals (or about 6.67% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Les Planchettes about 75 or (33.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 16 or (7.1%) 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, t ...
or a ''Fachhochschule
A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...
''). Of the 16 who completed tertiary schooling, 68.8% were Swiss men, 18.8% were 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 cent ...
, 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. The primary school in Les Planchettes is combined with La Chaux-de-Fonds
La Chaux-de-Fonds () is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city loc ...
. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 0.5 kindergarten classes with a total of 7 students in Les Planchettes. In the same year, there were 113 primary classes with a total of 2,042 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 accessed 17 October 2011
, there were 26 students from Les Planchettes who attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Planchettes
Municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel