Le Lieu is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the Vallée de Joux.
History
Le Lieu is first mentioned in 1155 as loco dompni Poncii heremite ("in the place of lord Poncius the hermit"). In 1408 it was mentioned as le Lieu Poncet. The village of Les Charbonnières was first mentioned in 1489 and Le Séchey village was first mentioned in 1489.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, 56.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for growing crops and 11.8% is pastures and 22.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.
The municipality is located on the eastern shore of Lac de Joux. It consists of the villages of Le Lieu, Les Charbonnières and Le Séchey as well as multiple hamlets.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or, a Bar Azure, overall Saint Poncet bearded Argent, garmented Sable, holding a staff of the same in dexter and a Bible of the third.
Demographics
Le Lieu has a population () of . , 12.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 4.4%. It has changed at a rate of 5.1% due to migration and at a rate of -0.8% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (703 or 88.4%), with German being second most common (28 or 3.5%) and Italian being third (20 or 2.5%).
, there were 301 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 383 married individuals, 65 widows or widowers and 46 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 349 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.
there were 501 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 138. There were 22 single room apartments and 142 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 335 apartments (66.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 139 apartments (27.7%) were seasonally occupied and 27 apartments (5.4%) were empty.
<timeline>
Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)
id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)
ImageSize = width:1140 height:210
PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:1200
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1382 from:start till:120
bar:1382 at:130 fontsize:S text: "30 Hearths" shift:(8,5)
bar:1483 from:start till:52
bar:1483 at:62 fontsize:S text: "13 Hearths" shift:(8,5)
bar:1550 from:start till:172
bar:1550 at:182 fontsize:S text: "43 Hearths" shift:(8,5)
bar:1764 from:start till:980 text:"980"
bar:1850 from:start till:999 text:"999"
bar:1860 from:start till:1024 text:"1,024"
bar:1870 from:start till:1108 text:"1,108"
bar:1880 from:start till:1003 text:"1,003"
bar:1888 from:start till:989 text:"989"
bar:1900 from:start till:1161 text:"1,161"
bar:1910 from:start till:1037 text:"1,037"
bar:1920 from:start till:981 text:"981"
bar:1930 from:start till:917 text:"917"
bar:1941 from:start till:940 text:"940"
bar:1950 from:start till:1020 text:"1,020"
bar:1960 from:start till:970 text:"970"
bar:1970 from:start till:924 text:"924"
bar:1980 from:start till:703 text:"703"
bar:1990 from:start till:750 text:"750"
bar:2000 from:start till:795 text:"795"
</timeline>
Sights
The entire village of Le Lieu and ISOS village: Le Séchey 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 28.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (17.85%), the Green Party (16.21%) and the LPS Party (13.71%). In the federal election, a total of 285 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 45.2%.
Economy
, Le Lieu had an unemployment rate of 5.9%. , there were 42 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 635 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 18 businesses in this sector. 73 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 19 businesses in this sector.
, there were 767 workers who commuted into the municipality and 184 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 4.2 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 38.3% of the workforce coming into Le Lieu are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 8.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.6% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 578 children of which 359 children (62.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 46 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 41 students in those schools.
, there were 29 students in Le Lieu who came from another municipality, while 67 residents attended schools outside the municipality.