Le Pâquier, Neuchâtel

Le Pâquier () is a former municipality in the district of Val-de-Ruz in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

The municipalities of Boudevilliers, Cernier, Chézard-Saint-Martin, Coffrane, Dombresson, Engollon, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Fontainemelon, Fontaines, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane, Les Hauts-Geneveys, Montmollin, Le Pâquier, Savagnier and Villiers merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Val-de-Ruz.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013

History

Le Pâquier is first mentioned in 1328 as ''Pasquier''.

Geography

Le Pâquier had an area, , of . Of this area, or 45.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 51.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 2.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.3% is unproductive land.
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.0%. Out of the forested land, 45.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.9% is used for growing crops and 36.2% is pastures and 8.8% is used for alpine pastures.

The former municipality is located in the Val-de-Ruz district, in the north-east portion of the valley near the Neuchâtel-Saint-Imier road.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Argent, issuant from a Base Vert a Pine-tree of the same.''

Demographics

Le Pâquier had a population () of 198.Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB
''Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter'' accessed 3 October 2012 , 5.6% 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 -4.4%. It has changed at a rate of -5.8% due to migration and at a rate of 2.7% due to births and deaths.
accessed 27-October-2011

Most of the population () speaks French (207 or 89.6%) as their first language, German is the second most common (22 or 9.5%) and Portuguese is the third (2 or 0.9%).

, the population was 53.4% male and 46.6% female. The population was made up of 103 Swiss men (49.5% of the population) and 8 (3.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 93 Swiss women (44.7%) and 4 (1.9%) 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, 95 or about 41.1% were born in Le Pâquier and lived there in 2000. There were 72 or 31.2% who were born in the same canton, while 44 or 19.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 13 or 5.6% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 11.3%.

, there were 102 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 115 married individuals, 8 widows or widowers and 6 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

, there were 83 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 20 households that consist of only one person and 11 households with five or more people. , a total of 79 apartments (78.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 15 apartments (14.9%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (6.9%) 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 1.94%.

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:390
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:80 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:16 start:0
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width:42 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1531 from:start till:32
bar:1531 at:42 fontsize:S text: " 8 Hearths" shift:(7,5)
bar:1750 from:start till:174 text:"174"
bar:1850 from:start till:333 text:"333"
bar:1860 from:start till:389 text:"389"
bar:1870 from:start till:386 text:"386"
bar:1880 from:start till:367 text:"367"
bar:1888 from:start till:330 text:"330"
bar:1900 from:start till:281 text:"281"
bar:1910 from:start till:256 text:"256"
bar:1920 from:start till:281 text:"281"
bar:1930 from:start till:236 text:"236"
bar:1941 from:start till:229 text:"229"
bar:1950 from:start till:211 text:"211"
bar:1960 from:start till:169 text:"169"
bar:1970 from:start till:172 text:"172"
bar:1980 from:start till:201 text:"201"
bar:1990 from:start till:215 text:"215"
bar:2000 from:start till:231 text:"231"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 28.94% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (26.6%), the LPS Party (14.26%) and the FDP (12.34%). In the federal election, a total of 97 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 58.1%.

Economy

, Le Pâquier had an unemployment rate of 1.8%. , there were 37 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 4 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 2 businesses in this sector. 10 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 6 businesses in this sector. There were 124 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.7% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 39. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 26, of which 24 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 4, all of which were in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 9. In the tertiary sector; 2 were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 5 were in a hotel or restaurant and 1 was a technical professional or scientist.

, there were 18 workers who commuted into the municipality and 67 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 1.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 58.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 16 or 6.9% were Roman Catholic, while 147 or 63.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 26 individuals (or about 11.26% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 1 individual who belonged to another church. 43 (or about 18.61% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 11 individuals (or about 4.76% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Le Pâquier about 69 or (29.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 32 or (13.9%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule''). Of the 32 who completed tertiary schooling, 43.8% were Swiss men, 46.9% were Swiss women.

In the canton of Neuchâtel most municipalities provide two years of non-mandatory kindergarten, 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 kindergarten in Le Pâquier is combined with Dombresson and Villiers. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 50 students between the municipalities. In the same year, there was one primary class with a total of 16 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 accessed 17 October 2011

, there were 13 students in Le Pâquier who came from another municipality, while 28 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paquier, Neuchatel, Le
Former municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel