Franches-Montagnes District (, , Franc-Comtois: Dichtrict des Fraintches-Montaignes) is one of the four districts of the canton of Jura, Switzerland. Its capital is the town of Saignelégier. The French-speaking district has a population of (as of ).
Municipalities Franches-Montagnes contains a total of 12 municipalities:
Coat of Arms Municipality Population() Area km2Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Le Bémont Les Bois Les Breuleux Les Enfers Les Genevez Lajoux Le Noirmont Montfaucon Muriaux Saignelégier Saint-Brais Soubey Total 200.18
Mergers In 2009 Montfavergier merged into Montfaucon and Le Peuchapatte merged into Muriaux. At the same time, Goumois and Les Pommerats merged into Saignelégier. Also in 2009, Epauvillers and Epiquerez merged into Clos du Doubs of the Porrentruy District.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2010 In 2023 La Chaux-des-Breuleux merged into Les Breuleux
Coat of arms The blazon of the district coat of arms is Or, a Roundel Argent bordered Sable and Coupeaux of Six Gules.Flags of the World.com accessed 3 January 2012
Demographics Franches-Montagnes has a population () of .
Most of the population () speaks French (8,975 or 91.9%) as their first language, German is the second most common (431 or 4.4%) and Portuguese is the third (91 or 0.9%). There are 72 people who speak Italian and 4 people who speak Romansh.
, the population was 49.7% male and 50.3% female. The population was made up of 4,498 Swiss men (45.1% of the population) and 456 (4.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 4,573 Swiss women (45.9%) and 446 (4.5%) non-Swiss women.Population résidante permanente des communes, selon le sexe et la nationalité, au 31 décembre 2010, canton du Jura pdf document from the Canton of Jura Statistical Office accessed 19 December 2011 Of the population in the district, 4,147 or about 42.5% were born in Franches-Montagnes and lived there in 2000. There were 2,328 or 23.8% who were born in the same canton, while 1,840 or 18.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,031 or 10.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
, there were 4,275 people who were single and never married in the district. There were 4,596 married individuals, 524 widows or widowers and 374 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 accessed 2 February 2011.
There were 1,073 households that consist of only one person and 409 households with five or more people.
The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 accessed 29 January 2011
Politics In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SPS which received 33.99% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CSP (21.85%), the CVP (19.47%) and the FDP (13.05%). In the federal election, a total of 3,330 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 44.6%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton accessed 28 May 2010
Religion According to the , 8,649 people (88.6% of total population) identified as Christian, with a confessional division of 7,068 (72.4%) were Roman Catholics, 1,102 (11.3%) Reformed (Protestant) and 479 (5%) adherents of other Christian confessions (mostly free churches, but also including 25 members of an Orthodox church and 4 members of the Christian Catholic Church).
750 (7.7% of the population) stated no religious adherence (agnostic or atheist). 480 individuals (or about 4.91% of the population) did not answer the question.
86 (0.9%) people identified as Muslim, 9 as Hindu, 6 as Buddhist, and 7 as adherents of other religious groups.
Education In Franches-Montagnes about 3,255 or (33.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 785 or (8.0%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 785 who completed tertiary schooling, 61.9% were Swiss men, 27.3% were Swiss women, 5.4% were non-Swiss men and 5.5% were non-Swiss women.
The Canton of Jura school system provides two year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, 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 a three or four year optional upper Secondary school followed by some form of Tertiary school or they may enter an apprenticeship.
During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 922 students attending 55 classes in Franches-Montagnes. There were 12 kindergarten classes with a total of 197 students in the district.Effectifs de l'école enfantine 2009-2010 accessed 19 December 2011 The district had 43 primary classes and 725 students.Effectifs de l'école primaire accessed 19 December 2011
References