Les Ponts-de-Martel
History
Les Ponts-de-Martel is first mentioned in 1360 as Martel.
Geography
Les Ponts-de-Martel has an area, as of 2009, of 18.2 square kilometers (7.0 sq mi). Of this area, 10.8 km (4.2 sq mi) or 59.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 5.56 km (2.15 sq mi) or 30.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.85 km (0.33 sq mi) or 4.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.07 km (17 acres) or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and 0.97 km (0.37 sq mi) or 5.3% is unproductive land.
Of the built-up area, housing and buildings made up 2.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 27.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.8% is used for growing crops and 39.9% is pastures and 15.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality was located in the district of Le Locle until the district level was eliminated on 1 January 2018. It is on the north side of the Vallée de la Sagne et des Ponts. It consists of the village of Les Ponts-de-Martel and the hamlets of Martel-Dernier and Petit-Martel. The settlement of Le Joratel went to the municipality of Brot-Plamboz in 1920.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess, Azure a Bridge Argent and Gules a Hammer Or in bend sinistre.
Demographics
Les Ponts-de-Martel has a population (as of December 2020) of 1,230. As of 2008, 6.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 1%. It has changed at a rate of 0.2% due to migration and at a rate of 1.1% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks French (1,215 or 93.7%) as their first language, German is the second most common (47 or 3.6%) and Albanian is the third (7 or 0.5%). There are 6 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh.
As of 2008, the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 565 Swiss men (44.7% of the population) and 51 (4.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 610 Swiss women (48.2%) and 39 (3.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 604 or about 46.6% were born in Les Ponts-de-Martel and lived there in 2000. There were 373 or 28.8% who were born in the same canton, while 174 or 13.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 102 or 7.9% were born outside of Switzerland.
As of 2000, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 53.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.7%.
As of 2000, there were 532 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 601 married individuals, 110 widows or widowers and 54 individuals who are divorced.
As of 2000, there were 497 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 155 households that consist of only one person and 60 households with five or more people. In 2000, a total of 482 apartments (82.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 56 apartments (9.6%) were seasonally occupied and 45 apartments (7.7%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2010, was 0.67%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 30.81% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (21.3%), the LPS Party (17.23%) and the FDP (10.89%). In the federal election, a total of 560 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 59.4%.