Courtelary is a municipality

Municipalities of Switzerland

Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 of the French-speaking Bernese Jura

Bernese Jura

Bernese Jura is the name for the French-speaking area of the Swiss canton of Bern, and from 2010 one of five administrative divisions of the canton....

, in the canton

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Bern in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. The town is the capital of the Jura bernois administrative district.

Geography

Courtelary has an area, , of 22.17 km² (8.6 sq mi). Of this area, 11.39 km² (4.4 sq mi) or 51.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 9.66 km² (3.7 sq mi) or 43.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.99 km² (0.38224113700661 sq mi) or 4.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km² (7.4 acre) or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.9%. 37.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 11.7% is used for growing crops and 13.1% is pastures and 26.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Courtelary consists of two sections, the main village down in the valley and a number of individual farms up (about 900 metres (2,952.8 ft) above sea level) on the mountains.

Demographics

Courtelary has a population (as of ) of . , 10.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 4.9%. Most of the population speaks French (82.8%), with German being second most common (11.1%) and Italian being third ( 1.9%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP

Swiss People's Party

The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 34.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (25.8%), the FDP

Free Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (21.1%) and the Green Party

Green Party of Switzerland

The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (13.1%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 55.7% and the seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.8%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Courtelary about 67.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule

Fachhochschule

A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

Courtelary has an unemployment rate of 0.99%. , there were 60 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 23 businesses involved in this sector. 265 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 17 businesses in this sector. 242 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 41 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1739	354
1801	545
1850	868
1900	1,228
1950	1,239