La Chaux-de-Fonds: report from a very special city

– La Chaux-de-Fonds is shrinking, the economy is booming – how does that all work together?

Density stress prevails in the urban centers of Switzerland. But the city of Neuchâtel is not moving. Residents explain their home and politicians say why everything is getting better now.

Posted today at 6:39 p.m

The long Avenue Leopold-Robert is the artery of La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Foto: Gaëtan Bally (Keystone)

A lack of living space, expensive rents, high density stress: everything that many Swiss cities are fighting against is known in La Chaux-de-Fonds at best from hearsay. The watchmaking town in the Neuchâtel Jura, located at around 1000 meters above sea level, is struggling with the opposite problems. The city is shrinking. It has been losing residents for years, including last year. At the end of 2022, 36,478 people lived in La Chaux-de-Fonds, 221 fewer than in 2021: despite low rents and an abundance of living space. More than 42,000 people lived here in the 1960s.