Vicques (; formerly german: Wix) 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 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 ...

. The municipalities of

Montsevelier Montsevelier () is a former municipality in the district of Delémont in the canton of Jura in Switzerland. The municipalities of Montsevelier, Vermes and Vicques merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Val Terbi.

Vermes Vermes ("worms") is an obsolete taxon used by Carl Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for non-arthropod invertebrate animals. Linnaeus In Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae'', the Vermes had the rank of class, occupying the 6th (and last) slot of hi ...

and Vicques merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Val Terbi.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013 Jura Observatory is located above Vicques.

History

Vicques is first mentioned in 866 as ''Vicum''.

Geography

Vicques had an area of . Of this area, or 46.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 45.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.2% 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, housing and buildings made up 4.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 42.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 23.0% is used for growing crops and 12.4% is pastures and 10.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The former municipality is located in the Delemont district, in the Val Terbi.

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 ''Or, two Fishes Azure in saltire.''

Demographics

Vicques had a population () of 1,763.Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB
''Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter'' accessed 3 October 2012 , 8.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 7.6%. Migration accounted for -1.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 5.9%.
accessed 22-December-2011 Most of the population () speaks French (1,508 or 93.8%) 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 (53 or 3.3%) 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 (15 or 0.9%). , the population was 51.3% male and 48.7% female. The population was made up of 808 Swiss men (46.5% of the population) and 84 (4.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 790 Swiss women (45.4%) and 57 (3.3%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 650 or about 40.4% were born in Vicques and lived there in 2000. There were 582 or 36.2% who were born in the same canton, while 207 or 12.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 122 or 7.6% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 12.4%. , there were 656 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 832 married individuals, 83 widows or widowers and 37 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 569 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 103 households that consist of only one person and 65 households with five or more people. , a total of 555 apartments (92.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 31 apartments (5.2%) were seasonally occupied and 14 apartments (2.3%) 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 2.9 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.6%. 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:1700 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:1770 from:start till:195 text:"195" bar:1818 from:start till:327 text:"327" bar:1850 from:start till:530 text:"530" bar:1860 from:start till:551 text:"551" bar:1870 from:start till:535 text:"535" bar:1880 from:start till:564 text:"564" bar:1888 from:start till:518 text:"518" bar:1900 from:start till:488 text:"488" bar:1910 from:start till:655 text:"655" bar:1920 from:start till:679 text:"679" bar:1930 from:start till:767 text:"767" bar:1941 from:start till:762 text:"762" bar:1950 from:start till:839 text:"839" bar:1960 from:start till:938 text:"938" bar:1970 from:start till:1108 text:"1,108" bar:1980 from:start till:1196 text:"1,196" bar:1990 from:start till:1392 text:"1,392" bar:2000 from:start till:1608 text:"1,608"

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

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 ...

which received 49.63% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (19.7%), the CSP (15.34%) and the SVP (11.5%). In the federal election, a total of 479 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 38.3%.

Economy

, Vicques had an unemployment rate of 4%. , there were 56 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 20 businesses involved in this sector. 180 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 24 businesses in this sector. 259 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 46 businesses in this sector. There were 800 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.9% 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 402. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 43, of which 36 were in agriculture and 6 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 172 of which 122 or (70.9%) were in manufacturing and 50 (29.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 187. In the tertiary sector; 59 or 31.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 4.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 8 or 4.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 10 or 5.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 4 or 2.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 35 or 18.7% were in education and 45 or 24.1% were in health care. , there were 222 workers who commuted into the municipality and 569 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 3.6% of the workforce coming into Vicques are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 65.8% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 1,308 or 81.3% 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 151 or 9.4% 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 was 1 member of an Orthodox church, there were 3 individuals (or about 0.19% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 46 individuals (or about 2.86% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 10 (or about 0.62% 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. There were 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 70 (or about 4.35% 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 40 individuals (or about 2.49% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Vicques about 584 or (36.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 123 or (7.6%) 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 123 who completed tertiary schooling, 64.2% were Swiss men, 26.0% were Swiss women, 6.5% were non-Swiss men. 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 a total of 486 students attending 27 classes in Vicques. There were 2.5 kindergarten classes with a total of 46 students in the municipality.Effectifs de l'école enfantine 2009-2010
accessed 19 December 2011 The municipality had 9 primary classes and 160 students.
accessed 19 December 2011 During the same year, there were 15 lower secondary classes with a total of 280 students.
accessed 19 December 2011 , there were 216 students in Vicques who came from another municipality, while 58 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Jura