La Chaux-du-Milieu is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

History

La Chaux-du-Milieu is first mentioned in 1310 as ''calvum de Escoblon''. Later it was known as ''Chaux de Cachot'' and ''Chaux Baussan''.

Geography

La Chaux-du-Milieu has an area, , of . Of this area, or 49.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 48.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 2.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.2% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 45.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.9% is used for growing crops and 28.3% is pastures and 19.9% is used for alpine pastures. The municipality was located in the district of

Le Locle Le Locle (; german: Luggli) is a municipality in the Canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It is situated in the Jura Mountains, a few kilometers from the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds. It is the third smallest city in Switzerland (in Switzerland ...

until the district level was eliminated on 1 January 2018. It is in the Brévine valley.

Coat of arms

The

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. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vi ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

is ''Argent, issuant from base Vert three Pine trees of the same, and in chief a Crow volant Sable.''

Demographics

La Chaux-du-Milieu has a population () of . , 3.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 9.3%. It has changed at a rate of 2.4% due to migration and at a rate of 6.1% due to births and deaths.
accessed 21-October-2011 Most of the population () speaks French (389 or 97.7%) as their first language,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

is the second most common (4 or 1.0%) and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

is the third (2 or 0.5%). There is 1 person who speaks

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. , the population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. The population was made up of 225 Swiss men (48.5% of the population) and 8 (1.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 221 Swiss women (47.6%) and 10 (2.2%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Neuchatel Statistics
, ''République et canton de Neuchâtel - Recensement annuel de la population'' accessed 13 October 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 168 or about 42.2% were born in La Chaux-du-Milieu and lived there in 2000. There were 163 or 41.0% who were born in the same canton, while 40 or 10.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 22 or 5.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.6%. , there were 164 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 211 married individuals, 15 widows or widowers and 8 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 144 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 34 households that consist of only one person and 20 households with five or more people. , a total of 144 apartments (78.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 26 apartments (14.2%) were seasonally occupied and 13 apartments (7.1%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.2 new units per 1000 residents. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:960 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:805 text:"805" bar:1860 from:start till:954 text:"954" bar:1870 from:start till:943 text:"943" bar:1880 from:start till:869 text:"869" bar:1888 from:start till:827 text:"827" bar:1900 from:start till:893 text:"893" bar:1910 from:start till:661 text:"661" bar:1920 from:start till:597 text:"597" bar:1930 from:start till:482 text:"482" bar:1941 from:start till:451 text:"451" bar:1950 from:start till:462 text:"462" bar:1960 from:start till:395 text:"395" bar:1970 from:start till:336 text:"336" bar:1980 from:start till:383 text:"383" bar:1990 from:start till:422 text:"422" bar:2000 from:start till:398 text:"398"

Heritage sites of national significance

The Farm House ''Du Grand Cachot'' is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Politics

In the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not ...

the most popular party was the SP which received 23.25% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party (19.3%), the SVP (18.85%) and the FDP (14.45%). In the federal election, a total of 182 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

was 56.5%.

Economy

, La Chaux-du-Milieu had an unemployment rate of 2.9%. , there were 78 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 28 businesses involved in this sector. 29 people were employed in the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...

and there were 6 businesses in this sector. 34 people were employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, with 11 businesses in this sector. There were 203 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.9% of the workforce. the total number of

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a ...

jobs was 100. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 57, of which 48 were in agriculture and 9 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 22 of which 19 or (86.4%) were in manufacturing and 3 (13.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 21. In the tertiary sector; 3 or 14.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 3 or 14.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 5 or 23.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 19.0% were in the information industry, 3 or 14.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 3 or 14.3% were in education and 1 was in health care. , there were 32 workers who commuted into the municipality and 117 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 25.0% of the workforce coming into La Chaux-du-Milieu are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 53.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 93 or 23.4% were

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

, while 229 or 57.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 10 individuals (or about 2.51% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 (or about 0.50% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 5 individuals who belonged to another church. 50 (or about 12.56% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 14 individuals (or about 3.52% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In La Chaux-du-Milieu about 140 or (35.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 29 or (7.3%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 29 who completed tertiary schooling, 69.0% were Swiss men, 24.1% were Swiss women. In the canton of Neuchâtel most municipalities provide two years of non-mandatory

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...

, 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 18 students in La Chaux-du-Milieu. In the same year, there were 2 primary classes with a total of 39 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 accessed 17 October 2011 , there were 20 students in La Chaux-du-Milieu who came from another municipality, while 49 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaux-du-Milieu Municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Neuchâtel