The steepest municipalities in canton Neuchâtel
National ranking →Les Planchettes is the steepest municipality in canton Neuchâtel: its terrain averages 19.9° of slope. Next come Boudry (16.9°) and Hauterive (16.1°). This is the mean gradient across the whole municipal area, measured on a 40 m elevation grid — a figure for ordering, not an absolute gradient. Source: swisstopo swissALTIRegio 2025.
Ranking
swisstopo · swissALTIRegio 2025| Rank | Municipality | Mean slope | Residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Les Planchettes | 19.9° | 198 |
| 2 | Boudry | 16.9° | 6'320 |
| 3 | Hauterive | 16.1° | 2'669 |
| 4 | Rochefort | 15.2° | 1'325 |
| 5 | Saint-Blaise | 14.2° | 3'238 |
| 6 | La Grande Béroche | 14° | 9'082 |
| 7 | Le Locle | 13.3° | 10'875 |
| 8 | Cressier | 12° | 1'924 |
| 9 | Val-de-Travers | 12° | 10'649 |
| 10 | Val-de-Ruz | 11.8° | 17'499 |
| 11 | Neuchâtel | 11° | 44'898 |
| 12 | La Chaux-de-Fonds | 10.8° | 37'233 |
| 13 | Enges | 10.3° | 271 |
| 14 | Les Ponts-de-Martel | 9.7° | 1'229 |
| 15 | Les Verrières | 9.5° | 649 |
| 16 | La Sagne | 9.4° | 1'068 |
| 17 | Le Landeron | 9.2° | 4'647 |
| 18 | La Côte-aux-Fées | 8.8° | 483 |
| 19 | Le Cerneux-Péquignot | 8.6° | 311 |
| 20 | Cornaux | 7.9° | 1'647 |
| 21 | La Brévine | 7.6° | 615 |
| 22 | Lignières | 7.6° | 1'041 |
| 23 | Milvignes | 6.7° | 9'312 |
| 24 | La Chaux-du-Milieu | 5.8° | 496 |
| 25 | Brot-Plamboz | 4.6° | 294 |
| 26 | Cortaillod | 3.8° | 4'798 |
| 27 | La Tène | 2.6° | 5'520 |
How we measure this
swisstopoThe mean slope of the terrain in degrees, averaged over the whole municipal area from the swisstopo swissALTIRegio digital elevation model at 40 m resolution (swissALTIRegio 2025). Two caveats matter. First, it describes the entire territory, not the inhabited settlement — a municipality can be steep overall while its village sits on flat ground. Second, slope depends on the grid it is measured at: at 40 m the figures run a few percent gentler than a 10 m grid, so use them to order municipalities, not as an absolute gradient. Steep terrain and large vertical range tend to coincide; see the greatest-vertical-range ranking.
Frequently asked questions
- Which municipality in canton Neuchâtel has the steepest terrain?
- Les Planchettes, whose terrain averages 19.9° of slope (swissALTIRegio 2025) — the steepest of any municipality in canton Neuchâtel, measured on the swisstopo 40 m elevation grid.
- Why is the slope measured at 40 m?
- Slope depends on the resolution of the elevation grid it is computed from. These figures use the swisstopo 40 m grid, which is stable and comparable across all municipalities; a finer 10 m grid would read a few percent steeper. The ranking order is reliable, but the degree value is not an absolute gradient.