Saint-Blaise, Switzerland
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Saint-Blaise () is a former
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 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 ...
. On 1 January 2025 the former municipalities of Enges, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise and La Tène merged into the new municipality of Laténa.


History

Saint-Blaise is first mentioned in 1011 as ''Arins''. In 1209 it was mentioned as ''Sanctus Blasus''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''St Blasien'', however, that name is no longer used.


Geography

Saint-Blaise has an area, , of . Of this area, or 26.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 52.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 20.9% 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, industrial buildings made up 1.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 6.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.0% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 7.2%. Out of the forested land, 50.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 15.2% is used for growing crops and 6.7% is pastures, while 4.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. The municipality was located in the district 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 ...
, until the district level was eliminated on 1 January 2018. It is at the foot of the Chaumont and along Lake Neuchatel.


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 ''Impalled, dexter Gules Saint Blasius clad Argent adorned Or holding a Crosier Or and a Comb Sable, and sinister per fess Azure a Cross Or and Argent a Mill Wheel Sable.''


Demographics

Saint-Blaise has a population () of . , 19.8% 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 0.4%. It has changed at a rate of -4.6% due to migration and at a rate of 3.1% due to births and deaths.
accessed 27-October-2011
Most of the population () speaks French (2,573 or 82.5%) 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 (243 or 7.8%) 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 ...
is the third (109 or 3.5%). There are 3 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 49.1% male and 50.9% female. The population was made up of 1,211 Swiss men (38.6% of the population) and 329 (10.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,348 Swiss women (42.9%) and 251 (8.0%) 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, 606 or about 19.4% were born in Saint-Blaise and lived there in 2000. There were 932 or 29.9% who were born in the same canton, while 769 or 24.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 722 or 23.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.3%. , there were 1,132 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,616 married individuals, 184 widows or widowers and 185 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 1,337 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 405 households that consist of only one person and 55 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,304 apartments (91.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 100 apartments (7.0%) were seasonally occupied and 27 apartments (1.9%) 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 0.41%. 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:3200 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:600 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:120 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1750 from:start till:597 text:"597" bar:1850 from:start till:1056 text:"1,056" bar:1860 from:start till:1297 text:"1,297" bar:1870 from:start till:1315 text:"1,315" bar:1880 from:start till:1322 text:"1,322" bar:1888 from:start till:1403 text:"1,403" bar:1900 from:start till:1650 text:"1,650" bar:1910 from:start till:1782 text:"1,782" bar:1920 from:start till:1697 text:"1,697" bar:1930 from:start till:1607 text:"1,607" bar:1941 from:start till:1622 text:"1,622" bar:1950 from:start till:1859 text:"1,859" bar:1960 from:start till:2412 text:"2,412" bar:1970 from:start till:2586 text:"2,586" bar:1980 from:start till:2788 text:"2,788" bar:1990 from:start till:2930 text:"2,930" bar:2000 from:start till:3117 text:"3,117"


Sights

The entire urban village of Saint-Blaise 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 SP which received 23.54% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party (19.47%), the SVP (18.63%) and the FDP (18.4%). In the federal election, a total of 1,173 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 57.0%.


Economy

, Saint-Blaise had an unemployment rate of 4.2%. , there were 28 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 9 businesses involved in this sector. 375 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 38 businesses in this sector. 898 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 143 businesses in this sector. There were 1,577 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.4% 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 1,099. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 20, of which 15 were in agriculture and 5 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 345 of which 223 or (64.6%) were in manufacturing, 4 or (1.2%) were in mining and 118 (34.2%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 734. In the tertiary sector; 323 or 44.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 14 or 1.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 47 or 6.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 20 or 2.7% were in the information industry, 20 or 2.7% were the insurance or financial industry, 66 or 9.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 57 or 7.8% were in education and 100 or 13.6% were in health care. , there were 993 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,252 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 1.4% of the workforce coming into Saint-Blaise are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010
Of the working population, 21.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.9% used a private car.


Religion

From the , 972 or 31.2% 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 1,234 or 39.6% 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 15 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.48% of the population), there were 6 individuals (or about 0.19% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 124 individuals (or about 3.98% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 7 individuals (or about 0.22% 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 40 (or about 1.28% 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 were
Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 656 (or about 21.05% 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 119 individuals (or about 3.82% of the population) did not answer the question.


Education

In Saint-Blaise about 1,150 or (36.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 629 or (20.2%) 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 ). Of the 629 who completed tertiary schooling, 51.8% were Swiss men, 27.8% were Swiss women, 13.5% were non-Swiss men and 6.8% were non-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. The kindergarten in Saint-Blaise is combined with Enges. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 64 students between the municipalities. In the same year, there were 9 primary classes with a total of 167 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 accessed 17 October 2011
, there were 143 students in Saint-Blaise who came from another municipality, while 220 residents attended schools outside the municipality.


Transportation

Saint-Blaise has two railway stations: , on the Jura Foot line of
Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...
, and , on the Bern–Neuchâtel line of
BLS AG BLS AG is a Swiss railway company created by the 2006 merger of BLS Lötschbergbahn and Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG. Its ownership is divided, with 55.8% of it owned by the canton of Berne, and 21.7% by the Swiss Confederation. It has two ma ...
. Hourly or better service is available to
Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
,
Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...
,
Fribourg or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...
, and
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 ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:S Blaise Former municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel Populated places on Lake Neuchâtel Switzerland geography articles needing translation from French Wikipedia