Souboz 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 in
Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking
Bernese Jura
Bernese Jura (french: Jura bernois, ) is the name for the French-speaking area of the Swiss canton of Bern, and from 2010 one of ten administrative divisions of the canton.
Comprising the three French-speaking districts in the northern part of th ...
(''Jura Bernois''). On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of
Châtelat
Châtelat () was a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (''Jura Bernois''), however a majority of the residents in Châtelat are German ...
,
Monible
Monible is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (''Jura Bernois''). On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Châtelat, Monibl ...
,
Sornetan
Sornetan is a former municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (''Jura Bernois''). On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Châtelat ...
and Souboz merged to form the new municipality of
Petit-Val.
[Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013
History
Souboz is first mentioned in 1398 as ''Subol''.
[
For most of Souboz's history, it was owned by the ]college
A college ( Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
of canons of Moutier-Grandval Abbey
Moutier-Grandval Abbey was a Benedictine abbey near the villages of Moutier and Grandval in today's Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It was founded around 640, when Grandval already existed; Moutier gre ...
under the Prince-Bishop of Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS) ...
. During the Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
, the village accepted the new faith and became part of the parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...
of Moutier. 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 ...
, Souboz became part of the French Département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety- ...
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 804 metres near Courgenay (now in the canton of Jura, Switzerland). The ...
. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin (, ; Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; german: Oberelsass, ) is a department in the Grand Est region of France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine. Its name means ''Upper Rhine''. Haut-Rhin is th ...
. After Napoleon'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 B ...
, Souboz was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. In the early 20th century, the municipality was close to bankruptcy and from 1926 until 1937 the mayor of Moutier took over running Souboz to get it out of debt. Today the municipality is mostly agrarian, with about 80% of the local jobs in agriculture.[
]
Geography
Before the merger, Souboz had a total area of .[ As of 2012, a total of or 38.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 58.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 1.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% 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 0.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 56.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.2% is used for growing crops and 17.7% is pastures and 17.2% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
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 the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visua ...
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 it ...
is ''Or a Bull Gules passant in front of a Tree Vert issuant from a Base of the same.''
Demographics
Souboz had a population (as of 2013) of 131.[ , 9.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 1.5%. Migration accounted for 0%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.5%.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 29 July 2013
Most of the population () speaks French (84 or 73.0%) 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
**Ger ...
is the second most common (30 or 26.1%) and Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Port ...
is the third (1 or 0.9%).[
, the population was 55.3% male and 44.7% female. The population was made up of 67 Swiss men (50.8% of the population) and 6 (4.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 52 Swiss women (39.4%) and 7 (5.3%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 41 or about 35.7% were born in Souboz and lived there in 2000. There were 40 or 34.8% who were born in the same canton, while 30 or 26.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 3 or 2.6% 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 55.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.2%.][
, there were 47 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 56 married individuals, 11 widows or widowers and 1 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 7 households that consist of only one person and 5 households with five or more people. , a total of 47 apartments (74.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 12 apartments (19.0%) were seasonally occupied and 4 apartments (6.3%) were empty.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011 In 2011, single family homes made up 50.0% of the total housing in the municipality.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Sights
The entire village of Souboz is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 50.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (23.7%), the Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundati ...
(11.9%) and the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (3.7%). In the federal election, a total of 59 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 67.8%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Souboz had an unemployment rate of 0.37%. , there were a total of 33 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 27 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. No one was 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 constructio ...
. 6 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 secon ...
, with 3 businesses in this sector.[ There were 68 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.1% of the workforce.
there were a total of 25 ]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. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 21, of which 20 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. There were no jobs in the secondary sector. Of the 4 jobs in the tertiary sector, 1 was in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry and 2 were in education.
, there were 5 workers who commuted into the municipality and 38 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 7.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 30 workers (85.7% of the 35 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Souboz.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 45.6% used a private car.[
In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Souboz making 150,000 CHF was 12.9%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.9%. For comparison, the rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide rate was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 44 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 14 made over 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Souboz was 104,293 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.
]
Religion
From the , 67 or 58.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...
, while 15 or 13.0% 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 letter ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 25 individuals (or about 21.74% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 5 (or about 4.35% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficie ...
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 3 individuals (or about 2.61% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Souboz about 48.5% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education
Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...
, and 12.1% 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. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
or a ''Fachhochschule
A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied ar ...
'').[ Of the 9 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 77.8% were Swiss men, 22.2% 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 cent ...
, 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 new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
.[Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document]
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were a total of 16 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 12 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 4 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 3 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of the canton of Bern