Les Verrières () 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
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative divisions
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and entertainment
* Canton (band), an It ...
of
Neuchâtel
Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...
in
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
Les Verrières is first mentioned in 1344 as ''villa de Verreriis''.
[ Jt was here that General ]Charles-Denis Bourbaki
Charles Denis Sauter Bourbaki (22 April 1816, Pau – 22 September 1897, Bayonne) was a French general.
Career
Bourbaki was born at Pau in extreme southwestern France, the son of Greek colonel Constantin Denis Bourbaki, who died in the Gr ...
crossed the Swiss border with the remnants of the Armée de l'Est
The Armée de l'Est (''Army of the East''; German - Ostarmee; also Second Loire Army; nicknamed the 'Bourbaki army' after its first commander General Charles Denis Sauter Bourbaki) was a French army which took part in the Franco-Prussian War of ...
during the Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
(1870–71).
Geography
Les Verrières has an area, , of . Of this area, or 46.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 50.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.4% is unproductive land.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data . Retrieved 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 46.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.2% is used for growing crops and 22.8% is pastures and 22.0% is used for alpine pastures.[
The municipality was located in the district of ]Val-de-Travers
Val-de-Travers is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2009, when the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Neuchâtel, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier, Les Bayards, ...
, until the district level was eliminated on 1 January 2018.
The main settlement is a linear village
In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties:
* linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping'');
* linearity of a ''polynomial''.
An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x)= ...
that is about long and consists of the villages of Cret, Belle Perche, Grand Bourgeau, Croix-Blanche and Meudon. Outside the main village, there are the hamlets
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
of Cernets and Mont-des-Verrières and scattered settlements over an elevation of above sea level.
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 ''Azure, on a bend Argent three Mullets f Sixof the first.''
Demographics
Les Verrières has a population () of . , 5.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Superweb database – Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008]
. Retrieved 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of -10.1%. Migration accounted for -7.2%, while births and deaths accounted for -1.9%.
. Retrieved 3 November 2011French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
(661 or 89.9%) as their first language, 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 ...
is the second most common (32 or 4.4%) and English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Culture, language and peoples
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
* ''English'', an Amish ter ...
is the third (7 or 1.0%). There are 4 people who speak 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 ...
and 3 people who speak Romansh.[
, the population was 50.1% male and 49.9% female. The population was made up of 307 Swiss men (46.0% of the population) and 27 (4.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 320 Swiss women (48.0%) and 13 (1.9%) non-Swiss women.][Canton of Neuchatel Statistics](_blank)
''République et canton de Neuchâtel – Recensement annuel de la population'' . Retrieved 13 October 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 246 or about 33.5% were born in Les Verrières and lived there in 2000. There were 171 or 23.3% who were born in the same canton, while 137 or 18.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 87 or 11.8% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 55% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18%.][
, there were 313 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 344 married individuals, 46 widows or widowers and 32 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000]
. Retrieved 2 February 2011
, there were 294 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.[ There were 117 households that consist of only one person and 25 households with five or more people. , a total of 287 apartments (68.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 75 apartments (17.8%) were seasonally occupied and 59 apartments (14.0%) were empty.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen]
. Retrieved 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 3.55%.[
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Sights
The entire village of Les Verrières is designated as 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 the most popular party was the SVP which received 42.27% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (19.72%), the FDP (18.69%) and the LPS Party (7.81%). In the federal election, a total of 265 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 45.4%.
Economy
, Les Verrières had an unemployment rate of 4.4%. , there were 56 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 23 businesses involved in this sector. 56 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 6 businesses in this sector. 127 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 32 businesses in this sector.[ There were 311 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.1% 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 201. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 50, of which 49 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 52 of which 35 or (67.3%) were in manufacturing and 17 (32.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 99. In the tertiary sector; 24 or 24.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 8 or 8.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 18 or 18.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 5.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 4.0% were in education and 8 or 8.1% were in health care.
, there were 109 workers who commuted into the municipality and 143 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 22.0% of the workforce coming into Les Verrières are coming from outside Switzerland.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb]
. Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 9.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.1% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 192 or 26.1% 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 371 or 50.5% 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 11 individuals (or about 1.50% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 individuals (or about 0.68% of the population) who were Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
, and 4 (or about 0.54% of the population) who were Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. There were 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 63 (or about 8.57% 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 ...
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 91 individuals (or about 12.38% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Les Verrières about 224 or (30.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education
Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education.
Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...
, and 40 or (5.4%) 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 40 who completed tertiary schooling, 55.0% were Swiss men, 35.0% 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 cen ...
, 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. During the 2010–11 school year, there was one kindergarten class with a total of 14 students in Les Verrières. In the same year, there were 2 primary classes with a total of 34 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 . Retrieved 17 October 2011
, there were 2 students in Les Verrières who came from another municipality, while 62 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verrieres Les
Municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel