Bretonnières is a

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

in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of

Vaud Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

History

Bretonnières is first mentioned in 1154 as ''Bretoneres''.

Geography

Bretonnières has an area, , of . Of this area, or 44.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 46.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.2%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.0% of the area Out of the forested land, 44.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 27.2% is used for growing crops and 17.1% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality was part of the

Orbe District Orbe District was a district of the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Mergers and name changes * On 1 January 1970 the former municipalities of Envy and Romainmôtier merged to form the new municipality of Romainmôtier-Envy. * On 1 September 2006 the ...

until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Bretonnières became part of the new district of Jura-Nord Vaudois.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011 The municipality is located at the foot of the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerla ...

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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

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 last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

is ''Per pale Argent and Gules, two wheat stalks counterchanged.''

Demographics

Bretonnières has a population () of . , 3.9% 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 (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -1.4%. It has changed at a rate of -1% due to migration and at a rate of -0.5% due to births and deaths.
accessed 27-July-2011 Most of the population () speaks French (195 or 97.5%), with

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

being second most common (3 or 1.5%) and

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

being third (1 or 0.5%). The age distribution, , in Bretonnières is; 15 children or 7.4% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 25 teenagers or 12.3% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 20 people or 9.8% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 22 people or 10.8% are between 30 and 39, 40 people or 19.6% are between 40 and 49, and 30 people or 14.7% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 28 people or 13.7% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 16 people or 7.8% are between 70 and 79, there are 8 people or 3.9% who are between 80 and 89.Canton of Vaud Statistical Office
accessed 29 April 2011 , there were 74 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 110 married individuals, 9 widows or widowers and 7 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 80 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 21 households that consist of only one person and 9 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 81 households that answered this question, 25.9% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 26 married couples without children, 31 married couples with children There were 2 households that were made up of unrelated people and 1 household that was made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 48 single family homes (or 66.7% of the total) out of a total of 72 inhabited buildings. There were 10 multi-family buildings (13.9%), along with 11 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (15.3%) and 3 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.2%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , a total of 75 apartments (82.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 13 apartments (14.3%) were seasonally occupied and 3 apartments (3.3%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1140 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:290 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:60 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:12 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1529 from:start till:64 bar:1529 at:74 fontsize:S text: " 16 Hearths" shift:(8,5) bar:1764 from:start till:161 text:"161" bar:1798 from:start till:168 text:"168" bar:1850 from:start till:231 text:"231" bar:1860 from:start till:216 text:"216" bar:1870 from:start till:271 text:"271" bar:1880 from:start till:256 text:"256" bar:1888 from:start till:250 text:"250" bar:1900 from:start till:252 text:"252" bar:1910 from:start till:254 text:"254" bar:1920 from:start till:281 text:"281" bar:1930 from:start till:256 text:"256" bar:1941 from:start till:234 text:"234" bar:1950 from:start till:219 text:"219" bar:1960 from:start till:190 text:"190" bar:1970 from:start till:168 text:"168" bar:1980 from:start till:159 text:"159" bar:1990 from:start till:171 text:"171" bar:2000 from:start till:200 text:"200"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 26.87% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (22.12%), the FDP (15.29%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

(11.91%). In the federal election, a total of 86 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 52.8%.

Economy

, Bretonnières had an unemployment rate of 3%. , there were 27 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 4 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 2 businesses in this sector. 6 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 ...

, with 2 businesses in this sector. There were 97 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.1% of the workforce. the total number of

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement 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 use ...

jobs was 23. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 16, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3 of which or (0.0%) were in manufacturing, 2 or (66.7%) were in mining and 1 was in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 4. In the tertiary sector; 3 or 75.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in education. , there were 7 workers who commuted into the municipality and 71 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 10.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 15.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 60.8% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 25 or 12.5% were

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, while 122 or 61.0% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 34 individuals (or about 17.00% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 33 (or about 16.50% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

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 3 individuals (or about 1.50% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Bretonnières about 81 or (40.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 24 or (12.0%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

''). Of the 24 who completed tertiary schooling, 58.3% were Swiss men, 29.2% were Swiss women. In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 18 students in the Bretonnières school district. In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts.Organigramme de l'école vaudoise, année scolaire 2009-2010
accessed 2 May 2011 During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 578 children of which 359 children (62.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

program requires students to attend for four years. There were 8 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 10 students in those schools.Canton of Vaud Statistical Office - Scol. obligatoire/filières de transition
accessed 2 May 2011 , there were 10 students in Bretonnières who came from another municipality, while 28 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Transportation

The municipality has a railway station, , on the Simplon line. It has regular service to , , and .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bretonnieres Municipalities of the canton of Vaud