Le Lieu 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
canton of
Vaud
Vaud ( ; , ), more formally Canton of Vaud, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of Subdivisions of the canton of Vaud, ten districts; its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat ...
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 ...
, located in the district of
Jura-Nord Vaudois in the
Vallée de Joux.
History
Le Lieu is first mentioned in 1155 as ''loco dompni Poncii heremite'' ("in the place of lord Poncius the hermit"). In 1408 it was mentioned as ''le Lieu Poncet''. The village of Les Charbonnières was first mentioned in 1489 and Le Séchey village was first mentioned in 1489.
[
]
Geography
Le Lieu has an area, , of . Of this area, or 34.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 59.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.2% 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 1.9%. Out of the forested land, 56.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for growing crops and 11.8% is pastures and 22.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.[
The municipality was part of the La Vallée District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Le Lieu became part of the new district of Jura-Nord Vaudois.][Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
accessed 4 April 2011
The municipality is located on the eastern shore of Lac de Joux. It consists of the villages of Le Lieu, Les Charbonnières and Le Séchey as well as multiple hamlets
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
.
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 ''Or, a Bar Azure, overall Saint Poncet bearded Argent, garmented Sable, holding a staff of the same in dexter and a Bible of the third.''
Demographics
Le Lieu has a population () of . , 12.5% 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 (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 4.4%. It has changed at a rate of 5.1% due to migration and at a rate of -0.8% due to births and deaths.
accessed 10-June-2011German
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 ...
being second most common (28 or 3.5%) 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 ...
being third (20 or 2.5%).[
Of the population in the municipality 263 or about 33.1% were born in Le Lieu and lived there in 2000. There were 251 or 31.6% who were born in the same canton, while 119 or 15.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 136 or 17.1% were born outside of Switzerland.][
In there were 4 live births to Swiss citizens and were 9 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 5 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 3 Swiss men and 1 Swiss woman who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 4 non-Swiss men who immigrated from another country to Switzerland and 2 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 2 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 11 people. This represents a ]population growth rate
Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...
of -1.6%.[
The age distribution, , in Le Lieu is; 76 children or 9.1% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 95 teenagers or 11.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 85 people or 10.2% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 105 people or 12.6% are between 30 and 39, 103 people or 12.4% are between 40 and 49, and 118 people or 14.2% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 106 people or 12.7% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 76 people or 9.1% are between 70 and 79, there are 63 people or 7.6% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 6 people or 0.7% who are 90 and older.][Canton of Vaud Statistical Office]
accessed 29 April 2011
, there were 301 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 383 married individuals, 65 widows or widowers and 46 individuals who are divorced.[STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 349 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.[ There were 125 households that consist of only one person and 25 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 361 households that answered this question, 34.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 4 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 109 married couples without children, 90 married couples with children There were 16 single parents with a child or children. There were 5 households that were made up of unrelated people and 12 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.][
there were 186 single family homes (or 58.1% of the total) out of a total of 320 inhabited buildings. There were 62 multi-family buildings (19.4%), along with 49 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (15.3%) and 23 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (7.2%). Of the single family homes 65 were built before 1919, while 6 were built between 1990 and 2000. The most multi-family homes (31) were built before 1919 and the next most (10) were built between 1946 and 1960.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
there were 501 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 138. There were 22 single room apartments and 142 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 335 apartments (66.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 139 apartments (27.7%) were seasonally occupied and 27 apartments (5.4%) were empty.[ , the construction rate of new housing units was 4.8 new units per 1000 residents.][ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Sights
The entire village of Le Lieu and ISOS village: Le Séchey is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 28.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (17.85%), the Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
(16.21%) and the LPS Party (13.71%). In the federal election, a total of 285 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 45.2%.
Economy
, Le Lieu had an unemployment rate of 5.9%. , there were 42 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 635 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 18 businesses in this sector. 73 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 19 businesses in this sector.[ There were 368 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.5% 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 696. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 35, of which 28 were in agriculture, 5 were in forestry or lumber production and 1 was in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 605 of which 584 or (96.5%) were in manufacturing and 22 (3.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 56. In the tertiary sector; 4 or 7.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in the movement and storage of goods, 20 or 35.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, 21 or 37.5% were in education and 3 or 5.4% were in health care.
, there were 767 workers who commuted into the municipality and 184 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 4.2 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 38.3% of the workforce coming into Le Lieu are coming from outside Switzerland.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.6% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 180 or 22.6% 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 ...
, while 411 or 51.7% 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 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.25% of the population), and there were 38 individuals (or about 4.78% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 21 (or about 2.64% 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 belonged to another church. 118 (or about 14.84% 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 40 individuals (or about 5.03% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Le Lieu about 275 or (34.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 90 or (11.3%) 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 90 who completed tertiary schooling, 66.7% were Swiss men, 26.7% were Swiss women.[
In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 87 students in the Le Lieu school district. In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts.Organigramme de l'école vaudoise, année scolaire 2009-2010]
accessed 2 May 2011 During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 578 children of which 359 children (62.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
program requires students to attend for four years. There were 46 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 41 students in those schools.[Canton of Vaud Statistical Office - Scol. obligatoire/filières de transition]
accessed 2 May 2011
, there were 29 students in Le Lieu who came from another municipality, while 67 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
Companies
* Vacherin Mont d'Or
Vacherin Mont d'Or (), or simply Vacherin (), is a cow's milk (French ''vache'', "cow") cheese. Two main types of French or Swiss Vacherin cheeses exist.
One type of Vacherin cheese is called mont d'Or, or Vacherin du Haut-Doubs, from France,' ...
, Rochat family Les Charbonnières
* Dubois Depraz SA - watch
A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of ...
making and micromecanics
* Eaton
* Valtronic - microelectronic assembly
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lieu Le
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Vaud