Cernier (French pronunciation: [sɛʁnje]) is the former capital of the district of Val-de-Ruz in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

The municipalities of Boudevilliers, Cernier, Chézard-Saint-Martin, Coffrane, Dombresson, Engollon, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Fontainemelon, Fontaines, Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane, Les Hauts-Geneveys, Montmollin, Le Pâquier, Savagnier and Villiers merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Val-de-Ruz.

[2] Cernier had an area, as of 2009[update], of 9.1 square kilometers (3.5 sq mi).

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent, an Sparrow Hawk displayed Proper langued Gules, escutcheon Gules, on a pale Argent three Chevrons Vert.

[7] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks French (1,727 or 89.9%) as their first language, German is the second most common (63 or 3.3%) and Italian is the third (49 or 2.6%).

[7] The historical population is given in the following chart:[2][11] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 26.5% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 736 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 51.5%.

[7] There were 948 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.5% of the workforce.

In 2008[update] the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 673.

In the tertiary sector; 138 or 24.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 31 or 5.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 11 or 2.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 0.7% were in the information industry, 11 or 2.0% were the insurance or financial industry, 46 or 8.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 84 or 14.9% were in education and 93 or 16.5% were in health care.

[7] From the 2000 census[update], 794 or 41.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 553 or 28.8% were Roman Catholic.

[15] During the 2010–11 school year, there were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 56 students in Cernier.