Most of the population speaks French as their first language, German is the second most common and Italian is the third. There are 17 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 48.2% male and 51.8% female. The population was made up of 17,772 Swiss men and 7,594 non-Swiss men. There were 20,440 Swiss women and 6,782 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the district, 12,636 or about 24.4% were born in Neuchâtel and lived there in 2000. There were 10,146 or 19.6% who were born in the same canton, while 12,694 or 24.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 14,545 or 28.1% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 21,499 people who were single and never married in the district. There were 23,461 married individuals, 3,154 widows or widowers and 3,571 individuals who are divorced. There were 9,789 households that consist of only one person and 935 households with five or more people. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray id:darkgrey value:gray ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:53000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:11000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:2200 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark: align:center bar:1850 from:start till:12846 text:"12,846" bar:1860 from:start till:16394 text:"16,394" bar:1870 from:start till:18863 text:"18,863" bar:1880 from:start till:21612 text:"21,612" bar:1888 from:start till:22683 text:"22,683" bar:1900 from:start till:28070 text:"28,070" bar:1910 from:start till:31453 text:"31,453" bar:1920 from:start till:30803 text:"30,803" bar:1930 from:start till:29631 text:"29,631" bar:1941 from:start till:30535 text:"30,535" bar:1950 from:start till:35582 text:"35,582" bar:1960 from:start till:42708 text:"42,708" bar:1970 from:start till:52519 text:"52,519" bar:1980 from:start till:50344 text:"50,344" bar:1990 from:start till:51324 text:"51,324" bar:2000 from:start till:51685 text:"51,685"
From the, 17,266 or 33.4% were Roman Catholic, while 16,300 or 31.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 497 members of an Orthodox church, there were 122 individuals who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 2,755 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There were 68 individuals who were Jewish, and 2,090 who were Islamic. There were 145 individuals who were Buddhist, 120 individuals who were Hindu and 73 individuals who belonged to another church. 11,074 belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 2,508 individuals did not answer the question.
Weather
Neuchâtel city has an average of 121.8 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Neuchâtel city receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 10.1 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 12.4, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is April with an average of of precipitation over 10.2 days.
Education
In Neuchâtel about 18,099 or of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 8,739 or have completed additional higher education. Of the 8,739 who completed tertiary schooling, 47.2% were Swiss men, 27.3% were Swiss women, 15.4% were non-Swiss men and 10.2% were non-Swiss women. In the canton of Neuchâtel most municipalities provide two years of non-mandatory kindergarten, followed by five years of mandatory primary education. The next four years of mandatory secondary education is provided at thirteen larger secondary schools, which many students travel out of their home municipality to attend. During the 2010-11 school year, there were 48 kindergarten classes with a total of 942 students in District de Neuchâtel. In the same year, there were 138 primary classes with a total of 2,561 students.
