Saint-Aubin-Sauges
Encyclopedia
Saint-Aubin-Sauges 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...

 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....

.

History

Saint-Aubin-Sauges is first mentioned in 1176 as Sancti Albini. In 1340 it was mentioned as villa de Sauges.

Geography

Saint-Aubin-Sauges has an area, , of 7.7 square kilometre. Of this area, 3.68 square kilometre or 47.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.95 square kilometre or 38.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.04 square kilometre or 13.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.3% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 7.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.5%. Out of the forested land, 35.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 16.9% is used for growing crops and 13.6% is pastures, while 3.9% is used for orchards or vine crops and 13.4% is used for alpine pastures.

The municipality is located in the Boudry district, in the La Béroche region. It stretched from the shores of 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....

 to an elevation of 1436 m (4,711.3 ft). It consists of the villages of Saint-Aubin and Sauges, which merged in 1888.

Coat of arms

The blazon
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 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 Impalled, per pale Argent and Gules a Rose counterchanged, and per pale Argent three bars Gules and Gules a Rose counterchanged.

Demographics

Saint-Aubin-Sauges has a population of . , 21.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 0.8%. It has changed at a rate of 0.6% due to migration and at a rate of 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...

 (2,054 or 84.7%) as their first language, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 is the second most common (106 or 4.4%) and 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 third (105 or 4.3%). There are 90 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 47.7% male and 52.3% female. The population was made up of 896 Swiss men (36.9% of the population) and 261 (10.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,054 Swiss women (43.4%) and 215 (8.9%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 587 or about 24.2% were born in Saint-Aubin-Sauges and lived there in 2000. There were 603 or 24.9% who were born in the same canton, while 592 or 24.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 582 or 24.0% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 23.3% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 59.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17%.

, there were 939 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,169 married individuals, 166 widows or widowers and 152 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 1,008 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 336 households that consist of only one person and 65 households with five or more people. , a total of 986 apartments (85.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 138 apartments (11.9%) were seasonally occupied and 35 apartments (3.0%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.81%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

The Le Béroche, a 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, and the neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 settlement at Port Conty / Tivoli 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 Port-Conty prehistoric pile-dwelling
Stilt 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.

Port-Conty has two neolithic settlements. The first is a Late 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...

 or Port-Conty type Cortaillod village. One piece of timber from this site has been dated to 3574. The second village is a Late Horgen
Horgen culture
The Horgen culture is one of several archaeological cultures belonging to the Neolithic period of Switzerland. The Horgen culture may derive from the Pfyn culture and early Horgen pottery is similar to the earlier Cortaillod culture pottery of Twann, Switzerland...

 village. Five of the piles are from 3160 and 3159, and two piles are from 3064 and 3062. The site was discovered in 1860 by F. Troyon, who originally thought it was a Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 village. Further excavations in the late 19th and early 20th century found that it was a neolithic site. In 1929-1932, P. Vouga dug a long (55 m (180.4 ft)) 1 to 1.5 m (3.3 to 4.9 ft) deep trench to examine a single layer. He found three archaeological horizons which were from the Middle Neolithic, the Late Neolithic and the end of the Late Neolithic. Based on his study, it appears that the site was covered by an artificial mound which was 20 by 10 m (65.6 by 32.8 ft) and about 70 centimetre deep. It was built in two stages, with a layer of branches between the layers.

Twin Town

Saint-Aubin-Sauges is twinned
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...

 with the town of Untersiggenthal
Untersiggenthal
Untersiggenthal is a municipality in the district of Baden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland, located in the Limmat Valley .-Geography:...

, Solothurn
Canton of Solothurn
Solothurn is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the northwest of Switzerland. The capital is Solothurn.-History:The territory of the canton comprises land acquired by the capital...

.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election
Swiss 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 SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 which received 27.34% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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....

 (18.64%), 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...

 (18.46%) 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....

 (10.68%). In the federal election, a total of 779 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 50.7%.

Economy

, Saint-Aubin-Sauges had an unemployment rate of 5.8%. , there were 31 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 295 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 37 businesses in this sector. 505 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 78 businesses in this sector. There were 1,176 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.0% 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 691. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 26, of which 21 were in agriculture, 2 were in forestry or lumber production and 3 were in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 281 of which 152 or (54.1%) were in manufacturing and 127 (45.2%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 384. In the tertiary sector; 89 or 23.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 2.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 17 or 4.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 4 or 1.0% were the insurance or financial industry, 29 or 7.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 13 or 3.4% were in education and 192 or 50.0% were in health care.

, there were 418 workers who commuted into the municipality and 760 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 1.9% of the workforce coming into Saint-Aubin-Sauges are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 10.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.4% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 793 or 32.7% were Roman Catholic, while 860 or 35.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
Swiss 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 31 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 1.28% 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 211 individuals (or about 8.70% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 individuals (or about 0.12% of the population) who were Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 23 (or about 0.95% 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 6 individuals who belonged to another church. 507 (or about 20.90% 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 92 individuals (or about 3.79% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Saint-Aubin-Sauges about 874 or (36.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 315 or (13.0%) have completed 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...

). Of the 315 who completed tertiary schooling, 50.5% were Swiss men, 32.4% were Swiss women, 11.1% were non-Swiss men and 6.0% 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 Saint-Aubin-Sauges is combined with Vaumarcus
Vaumarcus
Vaumarcus is a municipality in the district of Boudry in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.-History:Vaumarcus is first mentioned in 1227 as Valmarcuel....

. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 50 students between the municipalities. In the same year, there were 7 primary classes with a total of 133 students.

, there were 26 students in Saint-Aubin-Sauges who came from another municipality, while 192 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK