La Tène, Neuchâtel


La Tène is a municipality in the district of Neuchâtel, in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel.
On 1 January 2009, the former municipalities of Marin-Epagnier and Thielle-Wavre merged to form the new municipality of La Tène.
The La Tène toponym was originally applied to the lakeside area near Epagnier, notable as the eponymous site of the Iron Age archaeological of the La Tène culture.

Geography

La Tène has an area,, of. Of this area, or 48.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 8.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 36.8% is settled, or 3.9% is either rivers or lakes and or 2.4% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 6.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 14.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 11.9%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 41.9% is used for growing crops and 3.3% is pastures, while 3.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 3.7% is in rivers and streams.
It is located at the northeastern tip of Lake Neuchâtel at an elevation of 455 meters, and, as of, a population of people. It lies close to Biel/Bienne, at the boundary between French- and German-speaking regions, and at a knot of highways.

Demographics

La Tène has a population of. , 26.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 16.7%. It has changed at a rate of 12.1% due to migration and at a rate of 3.2% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population speaks French as their first language, German is the second most common and Italian is the third.
, the population was 49.2% male and 50.8% female. The population was made up of 1,740 Swiss men and 634 non-Swiss men. There were 1,871 Swiss women and 578 non-Swiss women.
, children and teenagers make up 24.4% of the population, while adults make up 64.2% and seniors make up 11.4%.
The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 0.1%.

Heritage sites of national significance

The Clinique De Préfargier, Maison De Santé and Les Bourguignonnes-les-Perveuils in Marin-Epagnier, the La Tène culture settlement and the Les marais d‘Epagnier prehistoric and medieval sites are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The Préfargier, Montmirail and Cité Martini areas are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Economy

, La Tène had an unemployment rate of 5.6%. , there were 47 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 14 businesses involved in this sector. 1,167 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 60 businesses in this sector. 2,867 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 198 businesses in this sector.
Of the working population, 15.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.2% used a private car.