Les Brenets

Les Brenets is a former municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2021 the former municipality of Les Brenets merged into Le Locle. Les Brenets is first mentioned in 1325 as chiez le Bruignet. Les Brenets had an area, , of . Of this area, or 41.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 48.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 3.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.3% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.8%. Out of the forested land, 44.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.6% is used for growing crops and 25.5% is pastures and 14.7% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 3.5% is in lakes and 0.3% is in rivers and streams. The former municipality is located near Le Locle, on the northwestern slope of the Jura Mountains. The river Doubs forms the French border in the municipality. Lac des Brenets on the Doubs is located in the municipality. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess by a bar chequy Or and Sable, in chief Gules a Chevron raised Argent, and in base Azure, a Waterfall falling from mountains with Pinetrees Vert. The waterfall is the Doubs Falls (Le Saut du Doubs) on the river Doubs between France and Switzerland. Les Brenets had a population (as of 2019) of 1,031. , 11.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of -7.9%. It has changed at a rate of -7.2% due to migration and at a rate of 0.3% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (1,106 or 95.0%) as their first language, German is the second most common (23 or 2.0%) and Italian is the third (18 or 1.5%). the population was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. The population was made up of 473 Swiss men (43.4% of the population) and 59 (5.4%) non-Swiss men.