Pleigne 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 district of

Delémont Delémont (; fc, D'lémont; german: Delsberg, ) is the capital of the Swiss canton of Jura. The city has approximately 12,000 inhabitants . History The area of the municipality was already settled in the middle Bronze Age. Fifteen urn buria ...

in the canton of Jura 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

Pleigne is first mentioned in 1179 as ''Plenna''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Pleen'', however, that name is no longer used.

Geography

Pleigne has an area of . Of this area, or 47.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 49.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% 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 1.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.2%. Out of the forested land, 46.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 17.4% is used for growing crops and 11.0% is pastures and 18.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. The municipality is located in the Delemont district, on a terrace at an elevation of . The village is north-west of Delemont. It consists of the village of Pleigne, numerous former farms of Lucelle/Lützel Monastery, the ''Gasthaus'' Moulin-Neuf, the 18th century mill at Bavelier and the archeological Löwenburg site.

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 ''Gules, between three Mullets of Five Or a Sword and a Staff Argent in Saltire and in chief on an Escutcheon of the last a Jay statant lined Sable.''

Demographics

Pleigne has a population () of . , 2.6% 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 0%. Migration accounted for -3.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.8%.
accessed 22-December-2011 Most of the population () speaks

French 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 ...

(347 or 85.0%) 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 **Ger ...

is the second most common (58 or 14.2%) 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 0.5%). , the population was 48.3% male and 51.7% female. The population was made up of 185 Swiss men (47.3% of the population) and 4 (1.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 194 Swiss women (49.6%) and 8 (2.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 200 or about 49.0% were born in Pleigne and lived there in 2000. There were 104 or 25.5% who were born in the same canton, while 69 or 16.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 15 or 3.7% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 29.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 11.3%. , there were 187 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 188 married individuals, 21 widows or widowers and 12 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 141 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household. There were 30 households that consist of only one person and 25 households with five or more people. , a total of 137 apartments (78.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 29 apartments (16.7%) were seasonally occupied and 8 apartments (4.6%) 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 2.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.65%. 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:470 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:90 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:18 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1818 from:start till:368 text:"368" bar:1850 from:start till:443 text:"443" bar:1860 from:start till:406 text:"406" bar:1870 from:start till:465 text:"465" bar:1880 from:start till:463 text:"463" bar:1888 from:start till:413 text:"413" bar:1900 from:start till:418 text:"418" bar:1910 from:start till:433 text:"433" bar:1920 from:start till:451 text:"451" bar:1930 from:start till:394 text:"394" bar:1941 from:start till:437 text:"437" bar:1950 from:start till:434 text:"434" bar:1960 from:start till:396 text:"396" bar:1970 from:start till:364 text:"364" bar:1980 from:start till:345 text:"345" bar:1990 from:start till:378 text:"378" bar:2000 from:start till:408 text:"408"

Heritage sites of national significance

The former

Priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...

of Löwenburg and the

paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

settlement and

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 parts ...

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

mine at Löwenburg are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire Löwenburg area is part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage. Sites of national importance Types The types are based on t ...

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 CVP which received 32.31% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, fo ...

(23.46%), the FDP (21.15%) and the SVP (20.38%). In the federal election, a total of 133 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 42.9%.

Economy

, Pleigne had an unemployment rate of 3.6%. , there were 51 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 33 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 were 3 businesses in this sector. 19 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 9 businesses in this sector. There were 217 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 (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 80. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 35, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 32 of which 26 or (81.3%) were in manufacturing and 6 (18.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 13. In the tertiary sector; 3 or 23.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 5 or 38.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 5 or 38.5% were in a hotel or restaurant, and . , there were 38 workers who commuted into the municipality and 138 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 21.1% of the workforce coming into Pleigne are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 9.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.8% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 305 or 74.8% 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 lette ...

, while 35 or 8.6% 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 34 individuals (or about 8.33% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 (or about 0.74% of the population) who were

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. 26 (or about 6.37% 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 ...

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 22 individuals (or about 5.39% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Pleigne about 139 or (34.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 33 or (8.1%) 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 33 who completed tertiary schooling, 60.6% were Swiss men, 27.3% were Swiss women. The Canton of Jura school system provides two year of non-obligatory

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 six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend a three or four year optional upper Secondary school followed by some form of Tertiary school or they may enter an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

. During the 2009-10 school year, there were no students attending school in Pleigne. , there were 9 students in Pleigne who came from another municipality, while 41 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Jura Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Jura