Neuchâtel: living, going out and working in the canton

The canton has not grown through births: in 2024 there were 1,467 births and 1,602 deaths, a natural balance of −135 people, according to the Statistics Service. Between 2024 and 2025 the population grew in every region: Littoral +530, Montagnes +271, Val-de-Travers +29, Val-de-Ruz +23. People aged 20 to 64 make up 59.75% of residents.

Cross-border workers: their number rose by 38.57% in ten years (+4,521), but fell by 0.4% over the last year. Men are 63.7% of them and people aged 25 to 49 are 71%.

French is the official language of the canton: article 4 of the Constitution says so in one sentence. Article 24 also guarantees freedom of language.

In everyday life it is therefore a French-speaking canton. Among residents of foreign origin, the Portuguese are the most numerous (12,185 people), ahead of the French and the Italians.

The canton lives under the Constitution of 24 September 2000 (as at 14 June 2026). It defines the canton as a democratic, secular and social republic that guarantees fundamental rights.

For the 2025-2029 term, the best-represented party in the Grand Council is the PLR (30 seats), followed by the PSN (27 seats), according to the Statistics Service.

Popular rights let citizens propose or reject texts:

• Popular initiative: 4,500 voters, signatures to be collected within six months (art. 40).
• Popular motion: 100 voters can send a motion to the Grand Council (art. 41).
• Optional referendum: 4,500 voters, within ninety days of the publication of the act, with a prior notice within twenty days (art. 42).

Who votes? Swiss citizens living in the canton, from 18 years old. In addition, in cantonal matters, foreigners holding a settlement permit (C permit) who have lived in the canton for at least five years are also voters (art. 37). Only Swiss citizens are eligible for cantonal authorities; the law may extend eligibility to foreigners for the judicial authorities (art. 47). We have not read the law that sets the municipal electorate: ask your municipality of residence.

• Tax: in France. The canton is one of the eight cantons of the agreement of 11 April 1983 (Neuchâtel, Vaud, Valais, Bern, Solothurn, Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Jura), under which, on certain conditions, cross-border workers are exempt from withholding tax in return for a payment of 4.5% of their gross payroll by France. According to the State of Neuchâtel, all conditions must be met: work as an employee in Switzerland, live in France, give each employer every calendar year the 2041-AS tax residence certificate, in two copies, before the first working day (or before 1 January in later years), and in principle return home every day.
• Days without returning home: for year-round work at 100%, at most 45 days, and at most one per week; part-time, in proportion to the activity rate; for part of a year, 20% of the days worked.
• Remote work: up to 40% of working time, temporary missions abroad included (at most 10 days of missions, within that 40% limit). These rules come from mutual agreements of 22 December 2022 and 30 June 2023.
• If the conditions are not met, withholding tax is levied in Switzerland under the France-Switzerland convention of 9 September 1966. Holding a G permit does not automatically give cross-border status for tax purposes.
• Your employer must report a cross-border employee to the State within 10 days; it then receives a form to fill in at the end of each year and return in late January.
• G permit: in Neuchâtel it is the Migration Service (Labour Office) that handles requests for foreign labour. We could not read the cantonal page on the G permit: follow the site's guide on the G permit and ask your employer.

The cantonal minimum wage is one of the canton's particularities. The Constitution (art. 34a) tells the State to set a minimum wage in all fields of activity, “taking account” of collective agreements. It has been in force since 4 August 2017. According to the 2026 memento of the Employment Service:

The minimum is adjusted every year to the Swiss consumer price index (art. 32d of the employment law). It applies to workers who habitually do their work in the canton. The memento explains what counts in the calculation: the salary that counts for AHV (the old-age insurance), so the 13th month, but not holiday or public-holiday pay; tips or service charges may count if they are a significant part of pay, as may regular benefits in kind (food, lodging). Excluded are apprenticeships, internships and recognised training, holiday jobs for under-25s (three months a year at most) and very low earnings (as a rule, CHF 2,500 a year at most).

• Hospitality collective agreement (CCNT): its minimums run from CHF 3,713 to 5,293 gross per month in 2026 depending on qualification (CHF 4,528 with a CFC), for a full-time job. The cantonal memento does not say how it fits with the CCNT: ask your employer, or the Employment Service, which minimum applies to your job.

The Neuchâtel Tourist Card gives free public transport across the canton to people staying at least one night in tourist accommodation: it is made for visitors, not residents.

Specialities to know

• The Neuchâtel saucisson PGI and the Neuchâtel saucisse PGI: two sausages of Swiss pork (two thirds lean, one third fat), made only in the canton and cold-smoked. The designation has been registered since 6 June 2003; both names are recorded from around the end of the 19th century.
• Gruyère PDO: the Les Martel cheese dairy in Les Ponts-de-Martel lets you watch cheese being made through a glass gallery and offers an exhibition (at the time of our check it showed an exceptional closure).
• Absinthe: born in the Val-de-Travers. The Maison de l'Absinthe in Môtiers tells its story, from the plants to the clandestine period; the exhibition “Pernod, the birth of the aperitif” runs until 7 March 2027.
• Neuchâtel wines: Neuchâtel Tourism presents them as heirs to 2,000 years of history. The Mauler sparkling wines can be discovered in Môtiers, in the cellars of the St-Pierre priory, founded in the 6th century (film, cellar tour, tasting).
• The Neuchâtel torrée: an autumn tradition to enjoy outdoors, with events at the end of September and the end of October.
• Métairies: mountain farm-restaurants where you eat rösti, fondue, mushroom croûtes, cold cuts and cheese specialities, notably around the Creux du Van circuit.
• Chocolate: Chocolatissimo brings chocolate makers together in Neuchâtel (31 October to 7 November 2026 for the current edition, which celebrates 200 years of Suchard); the Jacot haute chocolaterie in Môtiers offers a tasting space.

Where to taste them

Neuchâtel Tourism also offers guided Food Tours in the old town of Neuchâtel and in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Not to be missed

• Neuchâtel, the yellow city: built of Hauterive stone, a yellow limestone, around a castle and a collegiate church that overlook the town. According to Neuchâtel Tourism it has the largest pedestrian zone in Switzerland; the Quai Ostervald, the harbour and the Jeunes-Rives run along the largest lake lying entirely in Switzerland.
• La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle: their watchmaking town planning has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2009. La Chaux-de-Fonds, at 1,000 metres, is laid out as a grid; the Tour Espacité (viewing gallery on the 14th floor) gives an overview. The town is also a centre of Art Nouveau (the “style sapin”) and the birthplace of Le Corbusier, whose Maison blanche (1912) is open at weekends.
• Swiss Capital of Culture 2027: La Chaux-de-Fonds becomes the first Swiss Capital of Culture, with a programme of shows, exhibitions and participatory projects, presented on the Neuchâtel Tourism site.
• The Creux du Van: a rocky amphitheatre more than a kilometre across, with cliffs over 160 m high, ibex and chamois; the 14 hairpin trail climbs it. Dogs are strongly discouraged because of suckler cows.
• The Areuse gorges, from Noiraigue to Boudry; Chaumont, by funicular; the Saut-du-Doubs (a 27 m waterfall, reached by boat from Les Brenets); the Môtiers waterfall, dear to Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
• The pile-dwelling sites: prehistoric lake villages on the UNESCO list, mostly invisible under water, explained at the Laténium in Hauterive.

Museums

No official list of clubs or discos could be read for Neuchâtel: the section relies on the bars listed by Neuchâtel Tourism. The list is not exhaustive: nightlife venues open and close quickly.

1. Constitution of the Republic and Canton of Neuchâtel (RSN 101), as at 14 June 2026: art. 1, 2, 4, 24, 34a, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 47, 52, 53, 66, 67.
2. Neuchâtel Statistics Service, statistical portal: population, origin and nationalities; cross-border workers in Q2 2026; politics. Key figures of the 2025 cantonal census (PDF): 131,066 Swiss and 49,236 foreigners.
3. State of Neuchâtel, cross-border workers: 1983 agreement, conditions, days without returning, remote work, employer declaration.
4. Memento on the 2026 cantonal minimum wage (Employment Service), implementing regulation (RSalMin).
5. Site guides, checked against official sources: cross-border tax, G permit, contract and pay (CCNT).
6. Neuchâtel Tourism (Jura & Trois-Lacs site): Neuchâtel, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Creux du Van, UNESCO sites, events, Neuchâtel Tourist Card, location and access and the page of each place.
7. Swiss Association of PDO-PGI: Neuchâtel saucisson PGI; product list.
8. Onde Verte and transN: fares and network.
9. Websites of institutions and festivals: MahN, Museum of Ethnography, Dürrenmatt Centre, Natural History Museum, Grape Harvest Festival.
10. State of Neuchâtel, foreign labour request form (Migration Service).
11. Map coordinates: © OpenStreetMap contributors, checked address by address where the address is known; base map © swisstopo.