Les Ponts-de-Martel
Encyclopedia
Les Ponts-de-Martel is a municipality
in the district of Le Locle in the canton
of Neuchâtel in Switzerland
.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 27.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.8% is used for growing crops and 39.9% is pastures and 15.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the Le Locle district, on the north side of the Vallée de la Sagne et des Ponts. It consists of the village of Les Ponts-de-Martel and the hamlets
of Martel-Dernier and Petit-Martel. The settlement of Le Joratel went to the municipality of Brot-Plamboz in 1920.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Per fess, Azure a Bridge Argent and Gules a Hammer Or in bend sinistre.
Most of the population speaks French
(1,215 or 93.7%) as their first language, German
is the second most common (47 or 3.6%) and Albanian
is the third (7 or 0.5%). There are 6 people who speak Italian
and 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 565 Swiss men (44.7% of the population) and 51 (4.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 610 Swiss women (48.2%) and 39 (3.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 604 or about 46.6% were born in Les Ponts-de-Martel and lived there in 2000. There were 373 or 28.8% who were born in the same canton, while 174 or 13.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 102 or 7.9% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 27% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 53.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.7%.
, there were 532 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 601 married individuals, 110 widows or widowers and 54 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 497 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 155 households that consist of only one person and 60 households with five or more people. , a total of 482 apartments (82.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 56 apartments (9.6%) were seasonally occupied and 45 apartments (7.7%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.67%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the SVP
which received 30.81% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
(21.3%), the LPS Party
(17.23%) and the FDP
(10.89%). In the federal election, a total of 560 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 59.4%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 358. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 68, of which 67 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 79 of which 42 or (53.2%) were in manufacturing and 37 (46.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 211. In the tertiary sector; 73 or 34.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 24 or 11.4% were in the movement and storage of goods, 8 or 3.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 3 or 1.4% were the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 2.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 17 or 8.1% were in education and 69 or 32.7% were in health care.
, there were 265 workers who commuted into the municipality and 278 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 24.9% of the workforce coming into Les Ponts-de-Martel are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 11.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.1% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church
(or about 0.15% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.23% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
, and there were 291 individuals (or about 22.44% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 9 (or about 0.69% of the population) who were Islam
ic. There were 4 individuals who were Buddhist
and 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 213 (or about 16.42% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 45 individuals (or about 3.47% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 111 who completed tertiary schooling, 64.9% were Swiss men, 20.7% were Swiss women, 9.0% were non-Swiss men and 5.4% 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. The kindergarten in Les Ponts-de-Martel is combined with Brot-Plamboz
. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 34 students between the municipalities. In the same year, there were 5 primary classes with a total of 87 students.
, there were 61 students in Les Ponts-de-Martel who came from another municipality, while 53 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 Le Locle 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
Les Ponts-de-Martel has an area, , of 18.2 square kilometre. Of this area, 10.8 square kilometre or 59.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 5.56 square kilometre or 30.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.85 square kilometre or 4.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.07 km² (17.3 acre) or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and 0.97 square kilometre or 5.3% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 27.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.8% is used for growing crops and 39.9% is pastures and 15.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the Le Locle district, on the north side of the Vallée de la Sagne et des Ponts. It consists of the village of Les Ponts-de-Martel and 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 Martel-Dernier and Petit-Martel. The settlement of Le Joratel went to the municipality of Brot-Plamboz in 1920.
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 fess, Azure a Bridge Argent and Gules a Hammer Or in bend sinistre.
Demographics
Les Ponts-de-Martel has a population of . , 6.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 1%. It has changed at a rate of 0.2% due to migration and at a rate of 1.1% 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...
(1,215 or 93.7%) 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 (47 or 3.6%) and Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
is the third (7 or 0.5%). There are 6 people who speak 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...
and 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 565 Swiss men (44.7% of the population) and 51 (4.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 610 Swiss women (48.2%) and 39 (3.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 604 or about 46.6% were born in Les Ponts-de-Martel and lived there in 2000. There were 373 or 28.8% who were born in the same canton, while 174 or 13.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 102 or 7.9% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 27% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 53.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.7%.
, there were 532 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 601 married individuals, 110 widows or widowers and 54 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 497 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 155 households that consist of only one person and 60 households with five or more people. , a total of 482 apartments (82.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 56 apartments (9.6%) were seasonally occupied and 45 apartments (7.7%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.67%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
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 30.81% 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....
(21.3%), 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....
(17.23%) 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....
(10.89%). In the federal election, a total of 560 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 59.4%.
Economy
, Les Ponts-de-Martel had an unemployment rate of 4.1%. , there were 82 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 36 businesses involved in this sector. 91 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 24 businesses in this sector. 271 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 46 businesses in this sector. There were 591 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.5% 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 358. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 68, of which 67 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 79 of which 42 or (53.2%) were in manufacturing and 37 (46.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 211. In the tertiary sector; 73 or 34.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 24 or 11.4% were in the movement and storage of goods, 8 or 3.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 3 or 1.4% were the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 2.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 17 or 8.1% were in education and 69 or 32.7% were in health care.
, there were 265 workers who commuted into the municipality and 278 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 24.9% of the workforce coming into Les Ponts-de-Martel are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 11.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.1% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 121 or 9.3% were Roman Catholic, while 748 or 57.7% 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 2 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 0.15% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.23% of the population) who belonged 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 291 individuals (or about 22.44% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 9 (or about 0.69% 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 4 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...
and 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 213 (or about 16.42% 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 45 individuals (or about 3.47% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Les Ponts-de-Martel about 472 or (36.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 111 or (8.6%) 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 111 who completed tertiary schooling, 64.9% were Swiss men, 20.7% were Swiss women, 9.0% were non-Swiss men and 5.4% 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. The kindergarten in Les Ponts-de-Martel is combined with Brot-Plamboz
Brot-Plamboz
Brot-Plamboz is a municipality in the district of Le Locle in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.-History:Brot-Plamboz is first mentioned in 998 in the founding documents of the priory of Bevaix, as Broch.-Geography:...
. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 34 students between the municipalities. In the same year, there were 5 primary classes with a total of 87 students.
, there were 61 students in Les Ponts-de-Martel who came from another municipality, while 53 residents attended schools outside the municipality.