Pieterlen (French: Perles) is a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

[3] The Vorem Holz 3 archeological site contains the remains of a Bronze Age settlement in the Pieterlen municipality.

The early medieval Totenweg cemetery served two different settlements during the 7th-8th centuries.

During the Late Middle Ages the village was mentioned as the personal property of the Lords of Pieterlan.

Under the Prince-Bishops the village was combined with Romont, Reiben (now part of Büren an der Aare and Meinisberg) to form the southernmost ecclesiastical district of the Erguel seigniory.

After the collapse of Napoleonic France in 1815, the village was assigned to the Canton of Bern and in the following year it became part of the newly created Büren District.

The choir is decorated with medieval murals and the grave plate of the Lords of Eptingen-Wildenstein from the 14th century.

Starting in 1860, a number of small businesses and cottage workshops began manufacturing watch and clock parts.

The factories, good roads and railroad connections transformed Pieterlen from a farming village, producing grain and wine, into an industrial town.

The rapidly growing population required places to live so the workers' settlement of Sonnenhof and the new neighborhoods of Rebenweg, Romontweg, Rain and Löschgatter were built to house them.

Starting in 2002, a section of the A5 motorway from Solothurn to Biel was built through the municipality.

The Schlössli, a country estate for the Wildermeth family of Biel, was built in 1838.

[6] The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or a Lion rampant Gules overall a Bar Azure.

[10] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (2,832 or 86.3%) as their first language, French is the second most common (116 or 3.5%) and Albanian is the third (95 or 2.9%).

In the federal election, a total of 922 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 39.2%.

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 26, of which 20 were in agriculture and 6 were in forestry or lumber production.

In the tertiary sector; 126 or 28.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 2.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 50 or 11.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 38 or 8.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 41 or 9.3% were in education and 134 or 30.4% were in health care.

[10] From the 2000 census[update], 602 or 18.3% were Roman Catholic, while 1,845 or 56.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude.

Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.

[18] During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 384 students attending classes in Pieterlen.