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Belprahon () is a
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...
in the Jura bernois administrative district in the
canton of Bern The canton of Bern, or Berne (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the c ...
in
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 ...
. It is located in the French-speaking part of the canton in the
Jura mountains The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerla ...
.


History

Belprahon was formerly known by its German name, ''Tiefenbach'', though this name is no longer used. Throughout most of its history, Belprahon was part of the lands of
Moutier-Grandval Abbey Moutier-Grandval Abbey was a Benedictine abbey near the villages of Moutier and Grandval in today's Bernese Jura, Canton of Bern in Switzerland. It was founded around 640, when Grandval already existed; Moutier grew up around the abbey. Histor ...
and the Abbey's
college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...
of canons. After the 1797 French victory and the
Treaty of Campo Formio The Treaty of Campo Formio (today Campoformido) was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI) by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The trea ...
, Belprahon became part of the French
Département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...
of
Mont-Terrible Mont-Terrible () was a department of the First French Republic, with its seat at Porrentruy. The Mont Terrible for which the department was named is now known as , a peak of near Courgenay (now in the canton of Jura, Switzerland). The toponym ...
. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of
Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...
. After
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
's defeat and the
Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
, Belprahon was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. The village was bypassed by the major roads through the Grand Val and so for most of its history was generally rural and agricultural. In the 1960s many commuters moved into the village and by 1990 three-quarters of the working population commuted to jobs in other towns. A majority of the workers who work in the municipality now work in the services sector. It is the only municipality in the Grand Val that is not part of the
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
of Grandval. Rather it is part of the
Reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...
parish of
Moutier Moutier () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Switzerland. Currently, the town belongs to the Jura bernois (administrative district), Jura bernois administrative district of the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Ber ...
.


Geography

Belprahon has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 39.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 52.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.5% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 3.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 43.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 8.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 12.5% is used for growing crops and 7.3% is pastures and 19.6% is used for alpine pastures. It is located on the north flank of the Grand Val (valley of Moutier). On 31 December 2009 District de Moutier, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Arrondissement administratif Jura bernois.
accessed 4 April 2011


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 ''Per fess Azure a House with pinnacle Argent roofed Gules between two Fir Trees Vert trunked of the third and Argent a Fountain Basin between two Mullets all of the third.''


Demographics

Belprahon has a population () of . , 4.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 2%. Migration accounted for 1.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.3%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 6 June 2013
Most of the population () speaks
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
(289 or 88.1%) 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 (21 or 6.4%) 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 (6 or 1.8%). , the population was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. The population was made up of 142 Swiss men (47.8% of the population) and 8 (2.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 143 Swiss women (48.1%) and 4 (1.3%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012
Of the population in the municipality, 66 or about 20.1% were born in Belprahon and lived there in 2000. There were 136 or 41.5% who were born in the same canton, while 77 or 23.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 39 or 11.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 50.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 26.7%. , there were 111 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 185 married individuals, 15 widows or widowers and 17 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 26 households that consist of only one person and 12 households with five or more people. , a total of 121 apartments (89.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 10 apartments (7.4%) were seasonally occupied and 5 apartments (3.7%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.04%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:35 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:330 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:70 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:14 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:126 text:"126" bar:1860 from:start till:103 text:"103" bar:1870 from:start till:142 text:"142" bar:1880 from:start till:128 text:"128" bar:1888 from:start till:163 text:"163" bar:1900 from:start till:188 text:"188" bar:1910 from:start till:147 text:"147" bar:1920 from:start till:131 text:"131" bar:1930 from:start till:125 text:"125" bar:1941 from:start till:143 text:"143" bar:1950 from:start till:141 text:"141" bar:1960 from:start till:133 text:"133" bar:1970 from:start till:193 text:"193" bar:1980 from:start till:253 text:"253" bar:1990 from:start till:306 text:"306" bar:2000 from:start till:328 text:"328"


Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 29.6% of the vote. The next two most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (20.4%), and the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP) (17%) . In the federal election, a total of 104 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 44.6%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012


Economy

, Belprahon had an unemployment rate of 1.88%. , there were a total of 67 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 8 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 12 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 2 businesses in this sector. 47 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 9 businesses in this sector. There were 173 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.7% of the workforce. there were a total of 56
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. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 6, 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 39. In the tertiary sector; 20 or 51.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 5.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, and 15 or 38.5% were technical professionals or scientists. , there were 61 workers who commuted into the municipality and 138 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 35 workers (36.5% of the 96 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Belprahon.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010
Of the working population, 12.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 70.5% used a private car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident of Belprahon making 150,000 CHF was 13%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 19.1%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in 2006 was 13.9% and the nationwide rate was 11.6%.Regionale Disparitäten in der Schweiz - Schlüsselindikatoren
accessed 15 May 2013
In 2009 there were a total of 128 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 53 made over 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Belprahon was 121,104 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.


Religion

From the , 148 or 45.1% 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 ...
, while 130 or 39.6% 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 ...
. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 24 individuals (or about 7.32% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was
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. 34 (or about 10.37% 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 ...
or
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 2 individuals (or about 0.61% of the population) did not answer the question.


Education

In Belprahon about 55.8% of the population have completed non-mandatory
upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...
, and 22.1% 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 48 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 58.3% were Swiss men, 25.0% were Swiss women. The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory
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 six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an
apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...
. During the 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 18 students attending classes in Belprahon. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality. The municipality had one primary class and 18 students. Of the primary students, 5.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 11.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were a total of 24 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 10 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 14 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 41 residents attended schools outside the municipality.


References


External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern