Bever ( Romansh: ; German and official until 1943 ''Bevers'') is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Maloja Region in the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

canton of Graubünden.

History

Bever is first mentioned in 1139 as ''ad Bevero''.

Geography

Bever has an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . Of this area, about 15.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 15.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and 68.4% is unproductive land. Over the past two decades (1979/85-2004/09) the amount of land that is settled has increased by and the agricultural land has decreased by .Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Regional portraits
accessed 2 May 2016 Until 2017 the municipality was located in the Oberengadin sub-district of the Maloja district, after 2017 it was part of the Maloja Region. It is located on the Inn River, and the artificial lake Lej da Gravatscha is nearby. It consists of the village of Bever and the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Spinas at the entrance to the Albula Tunnel. Until 1943 Bever was known as Bevers.

Demographics

Bever has a population () of . , 17.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 3 years (2010-2013) the population has changed at a rate of -4.09%. The birth rate in the municipality, in 2013, was 3.2 while the death rate was 7.9 per thousand residents. , the gender distribution of the population was 51.5% male and 48.5% female.Graubunden in Numbers
accessed 21 September 2009 , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 14.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 68.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.6%. In 2013 there were 289 private households in Bever with an average household size of 2.17 persons. Of the 183 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 39.9% were single family homes and 37.2% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 32.8% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 19.1% were built between 1991 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Thema 09 - Bau- und Wohnungswesen
accessed 5 May 2016 In 2012 there was no new housing construction in the municipality. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.32%.

Historic population

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:100 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:181 text:"181" bar:1860 from:start till:144 text:"144" bar:1870 from:start till:163 text:"163" bar:1880 from:start till:148 text:"148" bar:1888 from:start till:151 text:"151" bar:1900 from:start till:407 text:"407" bar:1910 from:start till:221 text:"221" bar:1920 from:start till:223 text:"223" bar:1930 from:start till:254 text:"254" bar:1941 from:start till:236 text:"236" bar:1950 from:start till:227 text:"227" bar:1960 from:start till:234 text:"234" bar:1970 from:start till:367 text:"367" bar:1980 from:start till:432 text:"432" bar:1990 from:start till:496 text:"496" bar:2000 from:start till:631 text:"631" bar:2013 from:start till:633 text:"633"

Politics

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the SVP with 28.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (26.0%), the FDP (15.5%) and the BDP (14.4%). In the federal election, a total of 242 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 51.9%. The 2015 election saw a large change in the voting when compared to 2011. The percentage of the vote received by the SVP increased sharply from 22.5% in 2011 to 28.4% in 2015Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Nationalratswahlen 2015: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung nach Gemeinden
accessed 18 July 2016 In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 34.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (30.9%), the FDP (20%) and the local, small right-wing parties (7.5%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 20 October 2009

Education

In Bever about 80.5% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a '' Fachhochschule'').

Economy

, there were a total of 335 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 22 people worked in 7 businesses in the primary economic sector. The secondary sector employed 144 workers in 8 separate businesses. Finally, the tertiary sector provided 169 jobs in 50 businesses. In 2013 0.0% of the population received social assistance.

Languages

Most of the population () speaks German (66.6%), with Romansh being second most common (18.9%) and Italian being third (11.7%). Until the mid 19th Century, the entire population spoke the Upper- Engadin Romansh dialect of Puter. Due to increasing trade with the outside world, Romansh usage began to decline. In 1880 about 81% spoke Romansh as a first language, while in 1910 it was only 59%. The last time that Romansh was the majority language in Bever was in 1941. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

German became the clear majority language. However, in the 1990s many German speakers moved away from the village causing the percentage of Romansh speakers to increase. In 1990 there were 47% who understood Romansh in Bever and in 2000 it was 45%.

Transportation

The municipality has two railway stations, and . Both are on lines of the

Rhaetian Railway The Rhaetian Railway (; ; ), abbreviated RhB, is a Swiss transport company that owns the largest network of all private railway operators in Switzerland. Headquartered in Chur, the RhB operates all the railway lines of the Cantons of Switzerland, ...

and between them have regular service to , , , , and .

References

External links

Bever official website
* {{Authority control Municipalities of Graubünden Populated places on the Inn (river)