Montfaucon, Switzerland

Montfaucon is first mentioned in 1125 as de Monte Falconis. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Falkenberg, however, that name is no longer used. ==Geography==

Montfaucon has an area of . Of this area, or 65.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 30.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.5% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.1%. Out of the forested land, 26.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 4.6% is used for growing crops and 37.2% is pastures and 23.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent, a Falcon displayed Gules statant on Coupeaux of the same. This is an example of canting since the name Montfaucon means Falcon Mountain. ==Demographics==

Montfaucon has a population () of . , 4.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 7.4%. Migration accounted for 3.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 3.7%. Most of the population () speaks French (445 or 91.8%) as their first language, German is the second most common (35 or 7.2%) and Spanish is the third (2 or 0.4%). Of the population in the municipality, 215 or about 44.3% were born in Montfaucon and lived there in 2000. There were 135 or 27.8% who were born in the same canton, while 92 or 19.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 25 or 5.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 200 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 12 new units per 1000 residents. 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:660 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1818 from:start till:480 text:"480" bar:1850 from:start till:497 text:"497" bar:1860 from:start till:527 text:"527" bar:1870 from:start till:576 text:"576" bar:1880 from:start till:638 text:"638" bar:1888 from:start till:583 text:"583" bar:1900 from:start till:609 text:"609" bar:1910 from:start till:654 text:"654" bar:1920 from:start till:576 text:"576" bar:1930 from:start till:462 text:"462" bar:1941 from:start till:460 text:"460" bar:1950 from:start till:540 text:"540" bar:1960 from:start till:524 text:"524" bar:1970 from:start till:455 text:"455" bar:1980 from:start till:439 text:"439" bar:1990 from:start till:474 text:"474" bar:2000 from:start till:485 text:"485" ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CSP which received 28.17% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (23.66%), the CVP (22.82%) and the FDP (14.08%). In the federal election, a total of 181 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 44.3%. ==Economy==

, Montfaucon had an unemployment rate of 3.7%. , there were 67 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 29 businesses involved in this sector. 34 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 8 businesses in this sector. 76 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 17 businesses in this sector. , there were 41 workers who commuted into the municipality and 154 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 22.0% of the workforce coming into Montfaucon are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 4.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 60% used a private car. ==Transport==

The municipality has two railway stations, and . Both are located on the La Chaux-de-Fonds–Glovelier line. ==Religion==

From the , 344 or 70.9% were Roman Catholic, while 57 or 11.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.41% of the population), and there were 50 individuals (or about 10.31% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 (or about 0.41% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 1 individual who belonged to another church. 33 (or about 6.80% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 21 individuals (or about 4.33% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Montfaucon about 166 or (34.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 35 or (7.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 35 who completed tertiary schooling, 60.0% were Swiss men, 31.4% were Swiss women. During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 47 students attending 3 classes in Montfaucon. There was one kindergarten class with 9 students in the municipality. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 47 students. There are only nine Secondary schools in the canton, so all the students from Montfaucon attend their secondary school in another municipality. , there were 9 students in Montfaucon who came from another municipality, while 43 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==