Moutier

Moutier is first mentioned in 1154 in the phrase datum Monasterii. In 1181, it was mentioned as apud Monasterium ('at the Abbey'). In 1950, Moutier became a city and a number of construction projects followed. A swimming pool opened in that same year. In 1955 a second primary school opened along with a new building for the secondary school. A new train station opened in 1961. In 1962 the old secondary school was converted into a town hall. A primary school in Chantemerle opened in 1973 and a new district hospital was built in 1976. There are two museums in town, the villa Bechler with the Jurassic Museum of Arts and the villa Junker with the Museum of Automatic Lathes. Two other plebiscites also came down on the side of remaining in the Canton of Bern, including one in 1998 which passed with a thin majority of 41 votes. On 18 June 2017, the municipality held a referendum, asking citizens 'Do you want the city of Moutier to belong to the Republic and Canton of Jura?' The result of the referendum was 51.7% of the citizenry voting in favour of Moutier joining the Canton of Jura. The vote has since been declared invalid. On 28 March 2021, a repeated referendum saw 54.9% of Moutier voters once again vote in favour of seceding from Bern to join Jura. File:2005-Moutier-Hotel-de-Ville-Q.jpg|The Hôtel de ville (town hall) of Moutier File:Picswiss BE-97-06 Le Château de Moutier (Préfecture et le Tribunal de district).jpg|Moutier Provost's Castle File:Grenchbergtunnel Nordportal 02 10.jpg|Grenchenberg tunnel File:ETH-BIB-Moutier v. W. aus 400 m-Inlandflüge-LBS MH01-006674.tif|Aerial view from 400 m by Walter Mittelholzer (1931) ==Geography==

Moutier has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 29.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 55.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 13.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes, and or 0.6% is unproductive land. During the same year, industrial buildings made up 1.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 6.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.5% of the area. Out of the forested land, 52.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.7% is used for growing crops, 14.1% is used as pastures, and 11.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Monastery Argent. ==Demographics==

Moutier has a population () of . , 23.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001–2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0.2%. Migration accounted for 0%, while births and deaths accounted for −0.2%. Most of the population () speaks French (6,658 or 86.5%) as their first language, German is the second most common (303 or 3.9%) and Italian is the third (275 or 3.6%). There are 2 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 2,793 or about 36.3% were born in Moutier and lived there in 2000. There were 1,252 or 16.3% who were born in the same canton, while 1,808 or 23.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,605 or 20.8% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 1,239 households that consist of only one person and 186 households with five or more people. , a total of 3,369 apartments (87.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 286 apartments (7.4%) were seasonally occupied and 198 apartments (5.1%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0.9 new units per 1000 residents. 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:8800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1800 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:360 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1500 from:start till:342 text:"342" bar:1850 from:start till:917 text:"917" bar:1860 from:start till:1570 text:"1,570" bar:1870 from:start till:1946 text:"1,946" bar:1880 from:start till:2111 text:"2,111" bar:1888 from:start till:2320 text:"2,320" bar:1900 from:start till:3088 text:"3,088" bar:1910 from:start till:4164 text:"4,164" bar:1920 from:start till:4631 text:"4,631" bar:1930 from:start till:4704 text:"4,704" bar:1941 from:start till:5165 text:"5,165" bar:1950 from:start till:5916 text:"5,916" bar:1960 from:start till:7472 text:"7,472" bar:1970 from:start till:8794 text:"8,794" bar:1980 from:start till:7959 text:"7,959" bar:1990 from:start till:7860 text:"7,860" bar:2000 from:start till:7701 text:"7,701" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The chapel and cemetery De Chalière is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire urbanized village of Moutier is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election, the most popular party was the Social Democratic Party (SP) which received 23.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Swiss People's Party (SVP) (22.7%), the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP) (17.7%) and another local party (15.1%). In the federal election, a total of 1,898 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 38.2%. ==Economy==

The area has many factories that produce high-precision machine tools, particularly CNC & CAD/CAM machining centers, including Tornos Bechler SA & Schaublin Machines SA. , Moutier had an unemployment rate of 2.71%. , there were a total of 3,916 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 46 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 17 businesses involved in this sector. 2,121 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 114 businesses in this sector. 1,749 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 262 businesses in this sector. , there were 2,315 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,241 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.9 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. A total of 2,603 workers (53.9% of the 4,825 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Moutier. About 4.0% of the workforce coming into Moutier are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 13.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.9% used a private car. 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 3,307 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 929 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 39 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Moutier was 108,914 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011, a total of 7.5% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government. ==Religion==

From the , 3,684 or 47.8% were Roman Catholic, while 2,201 or 28.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 50 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.65% of the population), there were 11 individuals (or about 0.14% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 415 individuals (or about 5.39% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were three individuals (or about 0.04% of the population) who were Jewish, and 266 (or about 3.45% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 15 individuals who were Buddhist, two who were Hindu and three individuals who belonged to another church. A total of 766 (9.95%) residents belonged to no church, were agnostic or atheist. Finally, 285 individuals (3.70%) did not answer the question. ==Transport==

Moutier railway station sits at the junction of three railway lines: Basel–Biel/Bienne, Solothurn–Moutier, and Sonceboz-Sombeval–Moutier. It is served by regional and long-distance trains. ==Climate==

Between 1981 and 2010 Moutier had an average of 136 days of rain or snow per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was May during which time Moutier received an average of of rain or snow. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 13.5 days. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 10.4 days. ==Education==

In Moutier about 48.6% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 14.8% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). During the 2011–12 school year, there were a total of 918 students attending classes in Moutier. There were 8 kindergarten classes with a total of 144 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 27.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 22.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 27 primary classes and 456 students. Of the primary students, 32.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 15.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 17 lower secondary classes with a total of 318 students. There were 29.2% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 27.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language. , there were a total of 1,207 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 930 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 277 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 204 residents attended schools outside the municipality. == Notable people ==

• John Bost (1817–1881), Calvinist pastor, musician and social pioneer • Robert Hippolyte Chodat (1865-1934), botanist and pharmacist • Paul-Otto Bessire (1880-1958), historian • Jean-Claude Schindelholz (born 1940), 1966 FIFA World Cup footballer • Charles Kleiber (born 1942), former government official • Jean-Claude Wicky (1946–2016), photographer and filmmaker • Mauro Poggia (born 1959), politician and lawyer • Romain Crevoisier (born 1965), former goalkeeper • Sébastien Schneeberger (born 1973), Canadian politician, emigrated aged 10 • Lionel Friedli (born 1975), jazz percussionist • Cyndie Allemann (born 1986), racing driver ==References==