Valangin
Encyclopedia
Valangin 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 Val-de-Ruz
Val-de-Ruz (district)
Val-de-Ruz District is a district of the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, consisting of the region of Val de Ruz and the surrounding Jura Mountains. The district capital is the town of Cernier...

 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

Valangin has an area, , of 3.8 square kilometre. Of this area, 1.48 square kilometre or 39.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.87 square kilometre or 49.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.34 square kilometre or 9.0% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.3%. Out of the forested land, 46.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 22.3% is used for growing crops and 17.0% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Val de Ruz district, at the northern entrance of the Seyon canyon. It consists of the village of Valangin, the hamlet
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 La Borcaderie and the agricultural areas of Bussy and Sorgereux.

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 Gules, on a pale Or three Chevrons Sable.

Demographics

Valangin has a population of . , 22.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 1.7%. It has changed at a rate of -5.4% due to migration and at a rate of 7.3% 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...

 (348 or 87.0%) 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 (22 or 5.5%) 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 (14 or 3.5%). There are 10 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...

.

, the population was 52.0% male and 48.0% female. The population was made up of 163 Swiss men (39.8% of the population) and 50 (12.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 156 Swiss women (38.0%) and 41 (10.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 104 or about 26.0% were born in Valangin and lived there in 2000. There were 141 or 35.3% who were born in the same canton, while 73 or 18.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 69 or 17.3% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0-19 years old) make up 21.5% of the population, while adults (20-64 years old) make up 62.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.3%.

, there were 164 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 201 married individuals, 20 widows or widowers and 15 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 167 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 55 households that consist of only one person and 9 households with five or more people. , a total of 165 apartments (92.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 8 apartments (4.5%) were seasonally occupied and 5 apartments (2.8%) were empty.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

Valangin Castle
Valangin Castle
Valangin Castle is a castle in the municipality of Valangin of the Canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.-References:...

 and the Collégiale (Collegiate church
Collegiate church
In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic, or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost...

) 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...

. The small city of Valangin, the Bussy/Le Sorgereux region and the La Borcarderie region are all part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites 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:...

.

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 25.45% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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....

 (19.77%), 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...

 (16.8%) and 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....

 (16.02%). In the federal election, a total of 158 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 58.3%.

Economy

, Valangin had an unemployment rate of 5.1%. , there were 14 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 12 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 3 businesses in this sector. 49 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 12 businesses in this sector. There were 204 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.7% 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 58. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 11, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 11, all of which were in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 36. In the tertiary sector; 16 or 44.4% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 5.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 3 or 8.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 11.1% were in education and 5 or 13.9% were in health care.

, there were 51 workers who commuted into the municipality and 139 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 12.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.8% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 108 or 27.0% were Roman Catholic, while 164 or 41.0% 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 25 individuals (or about 6.25% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was 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 1 individual who belonged to another church. 93 (or about 23.25% 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 20 individuals (or about 5.00% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Valangin about 158 or (39.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 61 or (15.3%) 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 61 who completed tertiary schooling, 50.8% were Swiss men, 31.1% were Swiss women, 13.1% were non-Swiss men.

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 was one kindergarten class with a total of 15 students in Valangin. In the same year, there were 2 primary classes with a total of 37 students.

, there were 26 students in Valangin who came from another municipality, while 49 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
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