Saint-Blaise, Switzerland

Saint-Blaise is first mentioned in 1011 as Arins. In 1209 it was mentioned as Sanctus Blasus. The municipality was formerly known by its German name St Blasien, however, that name is no longer used. ==Geography==

Saint-Blaise has an area, , of . Of this area, or 26.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 52.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 20.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 6.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.0% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 7.2%. Out of the forested land, 50.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 15.2% is used for growing crops and 6.7% is pastures, while 4.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. It is at the foot of the Chaumont and along Lake Neuchatel. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Impalled, dexter Gules Saint Blasius clad Argent adorned Or holding a Crosier Or and a Comb Sable, and sinister per fess Azure a Cross Or and Argent a Mill Wheel Sable. ==Demographics==

Saint-Blaise has a population () of . , 19.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 0.4%. It has changed at a rate of -4.6% due to migration and at a rate of 3.1% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (2,573 or 82.5%) as their first language, German is the second most common (243 or 7.8%) and Italian is the third (109 or 3.5%). There are 3 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 606 or about 19.4% were born in Saint-Blaise and lived there in 2000. There were 932 or 29.9% who were born in the same canton, while 769 or 24.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 722 or 23.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 1,337 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.41%. 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:3200 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:600 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:120 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1750 from:start till:597 text:"597" bar:1850 from:start till:1056 text:"1,056" bar:1860 from:start till:1297 text:"1,297" bar:1870 from:start till:1315 text:"1,315" bar:1880 from:start till:1322 text:"1,322" bar:1888 from:start till:1403 text:"1,403" bar:1900 from:start till:1650 text:"1,650" bar:1910 from:start till:1782 text:"1,782" bar:1920 from:start till:1697 text:"1,697" bar:1930 from:start till:1607 text:"1,607" bar:1941 from:start till:1622 text:"1,622" bar:1950 from:start till:1859 text:"1,859" bar:1960 from:start till:2412 text:"2,412" bar:1970 from:start till:2586 text:"2,586" bar:1980 from:start till:2788 text:"2,788" bar:1990 from:start till:2930 text:"2,930" bar:2000 from:start till:3117 text:"3,117" ==Sights==

The entire urban village of Saint-Blaise 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 23.54% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the LPS Party (19.47%), the SVP (18.63%) and the FDP (18.4%). In the federal election, a total of 1,173 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 57.0%. ==Economy==

, Saint-Blaise had an unemployment rate of 4.2%. , there were 28 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 9 businesses involved in this sector. 375 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 38 businesses in this sector. 898 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 143 businesses in this sector. , there were 993 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,252 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 1.4% of the workforce coming into Saint-Blaise are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 21.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.9% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 972 or 31.2% were Roman Catholic, while 1,234 or 39.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 15 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.48% of the population), there were 6 individuals (or about 0.19% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 124 individuals (or about 3.98% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 7 individuals (or about 0.22% of the population) who were Jewish, and 40 (or about 1.28% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 656 (or about 21.05% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 119 individuals (or about 3.82% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Saint-Blaise about 1,150 or (36.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 629 or (20.2%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ). Of the 629 who completed tertiary schooling, 51.8% were Swiss men, 27.8% were Swiss women, 13.5% were non-Swiss men and 6.8% were non-Swiss women. The kindergarten in Saint-Blaise is combined with Enges. During the 2010–11 school year, there were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 64 students between the municipalities. In the same year, there were 9 primary classes with a total of 167 students. , there were 143 students in Saint-Blaise who came from another municipality, while 220 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==Transportation==

Saint-Blaise has two railway stations: , on the Jura Foot line of Swiss Federal Railways, and , on the Bern–Neuchâtel line of BLS AG. Hourly or better service is available to Bern, Biel/Bienne, Fribourg, and Neuchâtel. ==References==