corner of the old District de Courtelary. It consists of the village of La Ferrière, the hamlet of La Basse-Ferrière and a number of scattered farm houses. On 31 December 2009 District de Courtelary, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Arrondissement administratif Jura bernois. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Tower Argent gated and windowed Gules between four Linden Leaves and in a Chief wavy Or a Sun issuant Gules. Demographics La Ferrière has a population () of . , 7.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 6.2%. Migration accounted for 4.3%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.3%. Most of the population () speaks French (418 or 81.5%) as their first language, German is the second most common (85 or 16.6%) and Italian is the third (5 or 1.0%). , the population was 48.5% male and 51.5% female. The population was made up of 244 Swiss men (44.7% of the population) and 21 (3.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 260 Swiss women (47.6%) and 21 (3.8%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 196 or about 38.2% were born in La Ferrière and lived there in 2000. There were 86 or 16.8% who were born in the same canton, while 180 or 35.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 45 or 8.8% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.7%. , there were 224 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 258 married individuals, 22 widows or widowers and 9 individuals who are divorced. , there were 36 households that consist of only one person and 24 households with five or more people. , a total of 172 apartments (73.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 47 apartments (20.0%) were seasonally occupied and 16 apartments (6.8%) were empty. The historical population is given in the following chart: Heritage sites of national significance The Maison Gagnebin is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. Politics In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party