Gorgier
Encyclopedia
Gorgier is a municipality
in the district of Boudry
in the canton
of Neuchâtel in Switzerland
.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 53.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.7% is used for growing crops and 11.3% is pastures, while 4.5% is used for orchards or vine crops and 6.9% is used for alpine pastures. Of the unproductive areas, and 1.6% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Boudry district, on a hill above Lake Neuchatel
. It consists of the village of Gorgier, the hamlets
of Chez-le-Bart and the farm houses of Les Prises on Lake Neuchatel.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Per pale Gules and Argent, a Rose counterchanged.
Most of the population speaks French
(1,530 or 86.2%) as their first language, German
is the second most common (97 or 5.5%) and Italian
is the third (39 or 2.2%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the population was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. The population was made up of 784 Swiss men (40.8% of the population) and 187 (9.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 824 Swiss women (42.8%) and 128 (6.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 389 or about 21.9% were born in Gorgier and lived there in 2000. There were 537 or 30.3% who were born in the same canton, while 458 or 25.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 339 or 19.1% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 23.1% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 59.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.6%.
, there were 637 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 954 married individuals, 98 widows or widowers and 86 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 716 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 198 households that consist of only one person and 42 households with five or more people. , a total of 701 apartments (85.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 91 apartments (11.1%) were seasonally occupied and 31 apartments (3.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 17.3 new units per 1000 residents.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
, the Gallo-Roman
settlement at La Béroche and a prehistoric lake shore settlement are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance
.
(or stilt house) settlement that is part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
The Les Argilliez site consists of two villages. One is a Classical Cortaillod
village with 6 piles dated between 3841 and 3817 BC. The other is a Late Cortaillod site with 2 piles from 3531 to 3528 BC. Both villages are in a small bay about 200 m (656.2 ft) north of the Chez-le-Bart 1 site. The remains of the villages are still quite visible underwater and stretch over an area of about 150 by 50 m (492.1 by 164 ft). Some stone axes, antler ax handles and pottery fragments have been discovered.
the most popular party was the SVP
which received 25.58% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
(22.61%), the LPS Party
(19.06%) and the FDP
(11.32%). In the federal election, a total of 711 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 55.3%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 331. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 41, of which 38 were in agriculture, 1 was in forestry or lumber production and 1 was in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 81 of which 57 or (70.4%) were in manufacturing and 23 (28.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 209. In the tertiary sector; 24 or 11.5% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 8 or 3.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 29 or 13.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.0% were in the information industry, 11 or 5.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 5.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 72 or 34.4% were in education.
, there were 280 workers who commuted into the municipality and 631 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 2.5% of the workforce coming into Gorgier are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 10.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 65.9% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 13 members of an Orthodox church
(or about 0.73% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church
, and there were 168 individuals (or about 9.46% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 individuals (or about 0.11% of the population) who were Jewish
, and 24 (or about 1.35% of the population) who were Islam
ic. There were 5 individuals who were Buddhist
. 297 (or about 16.73% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 75 individuals (or about 4.23% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 251 who completed tertiary schooling, 58.2% were Swiss men, 26.7% were Swiss women, 10.0% were non-Swiss men and 5.2% were non-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. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 36 students in Gorgier. In the same year, there were 5 primary classes with a total of 101 students.
, there were 458 students in Gorgier who came from another municipality, while 68 residents attended schools outside the 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...
in the district of Boudry
Boudry (district)
Boudry District is one of the six districts of the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It has a population of . The district capital is the town of Boudry.-Municipalities:The district consists of the following municipalities:...
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 Neuchâtel 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....
.
Geography
Gorgier has an area, , of 14 square kilometre. Of this area, 4.66 square kilometre or 33.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 7.85 square kilometre or 56.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.16 square kilometre or 8.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.31 square kilometre or 2.2% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 53.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.7% is used for growing crops and 11.3% is pastures, while 4.5% is used for orchards or vine crops and 6.9% is used for alpine pastures. Of the unproductive areas, and 1.6% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Boudry district, on a hill above Lake Neuchatel
Lake Neuchâtel
Lake Neuchâtel is a lake in Romandy, Switzerland . The lake lies mainly in the canton of Neuchâtel, but is also shared by the cantons of Vaud, of Fribourg, and of Bern....
. It consists of the village of Gorgier, the hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
of Chez-le-Bart and the farm houses of Les Prises on Lake Neuchatel.
Coat of arms
The blazonBlazon
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 the appropriate image...
of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is Per pale Gules and Argent, a Rose counterchanged.
Demographics
Gorgier has a population of . , 15.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 10.8%. It has changed at a rate of 10.5% due to migration and at a rate of -0.3% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
(1,530 or 86.2%) as their first language, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
is the second most common (97 or 5.5%) and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
is the third (39 or 2.2%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the population was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. The population was made up of 784 Swiss men (40.8% of the population) and 187 (9.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 824 Swiss women (42.8%) and 128 (6.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 389 or about 21.9% were born in Gorgier and lived there in 2000. There were 537 or 30.3% who were born in the same canton, while 458 or 25.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 339 or 19.1% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 23.1% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 59.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.6%.
, there were 637 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 954 married individuals, 98 widows or widowers and 86 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 716 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 198 households that consist of only one person and 42 households with five or more people. , a total of 701 apartments (85.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 91 apartments (11.1%) were seasonally occupied and 31 apartments (3.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 17.3 new units per 1000 residents.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Heritage sites of national significance
The CastleGorgier Castle
Gorgier Castle is a castle in the municipality of Gorgier of the Canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.-References:...
, the Gallo-Roman
Gallo-Roman culture
The term Gallo-Roman describes the Romanized culture of Gaul under the rule of the Roman Empire. This was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman mores and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context...
settlement at La Béroche and a prehistoric lake shore settlement are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance
Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...
.
World heritage site
It is home to the Les Argilliez prehistoric pile-dwellingStilt house
Stilt houses or pile dwellings or palafitte are houses raised on piles over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding, but also serve to keep out vermin...
(or stilt house) settlement that is part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps is a series of prehistoric pile-dwelling settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 B.C. on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands...
UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site.
The Les Argilliez site consists of two villages. One is a Classical Cortaillod
Cortaillod culture
The Cortaillod culture is one of several archaeologically defined cultures belonging to the Neolithic period of Switzerland. The Cortaillod Culture in the west of the region is contemporary with the Pfyn Culture...
village with 6 piles dated between 3841 and 3817 BC. The other is a Late Cortaillod site with 2 piles from 3531 to 3528 BC. Both villages are in a small bay about 200 m (656.2 ft) north of the Chez-le-Bart 1 site. The remains of the villages are still quite visible underwater and stretch over an area of about 150 by 50 m (492.1 by 164 ft). Some stone axes, antler ax handles and pottery fragments have been discovered.
Politics
In the 2007 federal electionSwiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
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 25.58% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(22.61%), the LPS Party
Liberal Party of Switzerland
The Liberal Party of Switzerland was a party with economically liberal policies. It was known as a party of the upper class. On 1 January 2009 it merged with the larger Free Democratic Party to establish FDP.The Liberals....
(19.06%) and the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....
(11.32%). In the federal election, a total of 711 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was 55.3%.
Economy
, Gorgier had an unemployment rate of 4.5%. , there were 61 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 25 businesses involved in this sector. 91 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 24 businesses in this sector. 275 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 40 businesses in this sector. There were 889 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.8% of the workforce.the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...
jobs was 331. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 41, of which 38 were in agriculture, 1 was in forestry or lumber production and 1 was in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 81 of which 57 or (70.4%) were in manufacturing and 23 (28.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 209. In the tertiary sector; 24 or 11.5% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 8 or 3.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 29 or 13.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.0% were in the information industry, 11 or 5.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 5.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 72 or 34.4% were in education.
, there were 280 workers who commuted into the municipality and 631 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 2.5% of the workforce coming into Gorgier are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 10.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 65.9% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 452 or 25.5% were Roman Catholic, while 821 or 46.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed ChurchSwiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 13 members of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
(or about 0.73% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...
, and there were 168 individuals (or about 9.46% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 individuals (or about 0.11% of the population) who were Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, and 24 (or about 1.35% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic. There were 5 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
. 297 (or about 16.73% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, and 75 individuals (or about 4.23% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Gorgier about 653 or (36.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 251 or (14.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a FachhochschuleFachhochschule
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...
). Of the 251 who completed tertiary schooling, 58.2% were Swiss men, 26.7% were Swiss women, 10.0% were non-Swiss men and 5.2% were non-Swiss women.
In the canton of Neuchâtel most municipalities provide two years of non-mandatory kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
, 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 were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 36 students in Gorgier. In the same year, there were 5 primary classes with a total of 101 students.
, there were 458 students in Gorgier who came from another municipality, while 68 residents attended schools outside the municipality.