Auvernier is a village in the district of

Boudry Boudry is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel in Switzerland. History Boudry is first mentioned in 1278 as ''Baudri''. There are numerous prehistoric settlemen ...

in the canton of

Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The municipalities of Auvernier, Bôle and Colombier merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of

Milvignes Milvignes is a municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It was formed on January 1, 2013, by merging the former municipalities Auvernier, Bôle and Colombier.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013

History

Settlement has flourished since the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

in the vicinity of Auvernier, as evidenced by the large amount of material excavated by archaeologists, some of which is now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, including a hoard of penannular bracelets and armlets with

geometric Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

decoration. Auvernier is first mentioned in 1011 as ''Averniacum''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Avernach'', however, that name is no longer used.

Geography

Auvernier had an area, , of . Of this area, or 47.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 3.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 47.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.6% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 19.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 20.8%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.2% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.8%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for growing crops, while 46.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 1.8% is in lakes and 0.6% is in rivers and streams. The former municipality is located in the Boudry district, on the north-west bank of Lake Neuchatel.

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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

is ''Azure, a Perch nainaint Argent.''

Demographics

Auvernier had a population () of 1,589.Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB
''Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter'' accessed 3 October 2012 , 13.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 2.1%. It has changed at a rate of 4.2% due to migration and at a rate of -0.5% due to births and deaths.
accessed 17-October-2011 Most of the population () speaks French (1,322 or 86.2%) as their first language,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

is the second most common (102 or 6.7%) and

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

is the third (31 or 2.0%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh. , the population was 48.2% male and 51.8% female. The population was made up of 627 Swiss men (39.2% of the population) and 144 (9.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 727 Swiss women (45.5%) and 100 (6.3%) 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, 290 or about 18.9% were born in Auvernier and lived there in 2000. There were 569 or 37.1% who were born in the same canton, while 369 or 24.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 263 or 17.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.2%. , there were 595 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 733 married individuals, 107 widows or widowers and 98 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 680 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 242 households that consist of only one person and 37 households with five or more people. , a total of 657 apartments (91.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 43 apartments (6.0%) were seasonally occupied and 18 apartments (2.5%) 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 3.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.7%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1600 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1750 from:start till:520 text:"520" bar:1850 from:start till:677 text:"677" bar:1860 from:start till:703 text:"703" bar:1870 from:start till:678 text:"678" bar:1880 from:start till:804 text:"804" bar:1888 from:start till:783 text:"783" bar:1900 from:start till:875 text:"875" bar:1910 from:start till:866 text:"866" bar:1920 from:start till:940 text:"940" bar:1930 from:start till:951 text:"951" bar:1941 from:start till:960 text:"960" bar:1950 from:start till:1021 text:"1,021" bar:1960 from:start till:1186 text:"1,186" bar:1970 from:start till:1433 text:"1,433" bar:1980 from:start till:1439 text:"1,439" bar:1990 from:start till:1408 text:"1,408" bar:2000 from:start till:1533 text:"1,533"

Heritage sites of national significance

The prehistoric lake shore settlement at Baie D‘Auvernier and Auvernier Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Auvernier is part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) 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 The types are based on t ...

World heritage site

It is home to the La Saunerie and Les Graviers prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements which are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

.UNESCO World Heritage Site - Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
/ref> File:Chateau d'Auvernier 20110831 1809 HDR1.jpg, Auvernier Castle File:Auvernier Baie d'Auvernier (stations lacustres préhistoriques)20110831 1777 HDR.jpg, Site of the Baie d'Auvernier prehistoric settlement

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 21.72% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party (19.9%), the FDP (19.85%) and the SP (19.37%). In the federal election, a total of 702 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 60.4%.

Economy

, Auvernier had an unemployment rate of 3%. , there were 43 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 12 businesses involved in this sector. 117 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 14 businesses in this sector. 236 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 ...

, with 68 businesses in this sector. There were 754 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.5% of the workforce. the total number of

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement 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 use ...

jobs was 345. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 36, of which 31 were in agriculture, 4 were in forestry or lumber production and 1 was in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 112 of which 94 or (83.9%) were in manufacturing and 18 (16.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 197. In the tertiary sector; 48 or 24.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 6 or 3.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 30 or 15.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.0% were in the information industry, 3 or 1.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 41 or 20.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 9 or 4.6% were in education and 13 or 6.6% were in health care. , there were 262 workers who commuted into the municipality and 595 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 1.9% of the workforce coming into Auvernier are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 18.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.9% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 350 or 22.8% were

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, while 715 or 46.6% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 7 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.46% of the population), there were 9 individuals (or about 0.59% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 22 individuals (or about 1.44% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 8 individuals (or about 0.52% of the population) who were

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, and 3 (or about 0.20% of the population) who were

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic. There were 4 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

. 366 (or about 23.87% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 57 individuals (or about 3.72% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Auvernier about 588 or (38.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 365 or (23.8%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

''). Of the 365 who completed tertiary schooling, 55.9% were Swiss men, 31.8% were Swiss women, 8.2% were non-Swiss men and 4.1% were non-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 cen ...

, 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 Auvernier. In the same year, there were 4 primary classes with a total of 72 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 accessed 17 October 2011 , there were 136 students from Auvernier who attended schools outside the municipality.

Notable people

* Violaine Blétry-de Montmollin, Swiss politician

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Neuchâtel Populated places on Lake Neuchâtel Articles which contain graphical timelines