Chalais () 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 district of
Sierre
Sierre (; german: Siders, ; frp, Siérro, ) is the capital municipality of the district of Sierre, located in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It has a population of 16,332.
Sierre is nicknamed City of the Sun (french: Cité du Soleil) for ...
in the
canton of
Valais
Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the S ...
in
Switzerland.
History

Chalais is first mentioned in the 11th century as ''Jaler''. In 1425 it was mentioned as ''Challir''.
[
In 1892 much of the village was destroyed in a fire.][
]
Geography
Chalais has an area, , of . Of this area, or 19.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 67.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 4.7% is unproductive land.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, 64.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.4% is used for growing crops and 4.3% is pastures, while 4.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 9.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 3.0% is unproductive vegetation and 1.8% is too rocky for vegetation.[
The municipality is located in the Sierre district, on the left side of the Rhone river. It consists of the villages of Chalais and Réchy on the edge of the valley along with Brie and ]Vercorin
Vercorin is a village in the Swiss Alps, located in the canton of Valais. The village is situated in the central part of the canton near Sierre, at a height of , on a plateau overlooking the Rhone valley. It belongs to the municipality of Chalai ...
on a terrace in the mountains.
Coat of arms
The blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visua ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...
is ''Argent, between a Cross pattee Vert overall four Mullets of Five Gules.''
Demographics
Chalais has a population () of . , 15.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008]
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 17.9%. It has changed at a rate of 14.1% due to migration and at a rate of 0.3% due to births and deaths.
accessed 23-September-2011
Most of the population () speaks French (2,397 or 90.2%) as their first language, German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
is the second most common (116 or 4.4%) and Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
is the third (59 or 2.2%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh.[
, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 1,294 Swiss men (41.4% of the population) and 260 (8.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,336 Swiss women (42.8%) and 232 (7.4%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
accessed 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality, 1,194 or about 44.9% were born in Chalais and lived there in 2000. There were 753 or 28.3% who were born in the same canton, while 238 or 9.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 372 or 14.0% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.9%.][
, there were 1,020 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,375 married individuals, 156 widows or widowers and 106 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 1,045 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household.[ There were 308 households that consist of only one person and 74 households with five or more people. , a total of 922 apartments (43.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,084 apartments (51.2%) were seasonally occupied and 112 apartments (5.3%) were empty.][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.4 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.13%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
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Period = from:0 till:2700
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bar:1798 from:start till:492 text:"492"
bar:1850 from:start till:555 text:"555"
bar:1860 from:start till:687 text:"687"
bar:1870 from:start till:745 text:"745"
bar:1880 from:start till:899 text:"899"
bar:1888 from:start till:1009 text:"1,009"
bar:1900 from:start till:1116 text:"1,116"
bar:1910 from:start till:1259 text:"1,259"
bar:1920 from:start till:1375 text:"1,375"
bar:1930 from:start till:1483 text:"1,483"
bar:1941 from:start till:1611 text:"1,611"
bar:1950 from:start till:1635 text:"1,635"
bar:1960 from:start till:1597 text:"1,597"
bar:1970 from:start till:1651 text:"1,651"
bar:1980 from:start till:1805 text:"1,805"
bar:1990 from:start till:2206 text:"2,206"
bar:2000 from:start till:2657 text:"2,657"
Politics
In the 2007 federal election
This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...
the most popular party was the CVP which received 28.67% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (22.21%), the SP (21.19%) and the SVP (18.15%). In the federal election, a total of 1,172 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 can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...
was 57.4%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 1,280 votes were cast, of which 75 or about 5.9% were invalid. The voter participation was 61.8%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 1,164 votes were cast, of which 70 or about 6.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 57.7%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Chalais had an unemployment rate of 3.9%. , there were 76 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 36 businesses involved in this sector. 197 people were employed in the secondary sector
In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructio ...
and there were 40 businesses in this sector. 408 people were employed in the tertiary sector
The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector ( raw materials) and the secon ...
, with 83 businesses in this sector.[ There were 1,297 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.6% of the workforce.
the total number of ]full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a ...
jobs was 540. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 47, of which 34 were in agriculture and 13 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 188 of which 89 or (47.3%) were in manufacturing and 98 (52.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 305. In the tertiary sector; 75 or 24.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 19 or 6.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 53 or 17.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 7 or 2.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 23 or 7.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 21 or 6.9% were in education and 59 or 19.3% were in health care.
, there were 230 workers who commuted into the municipality and 876 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.6% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 2,222 or 83.6% were Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
, while 87 or 3.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 51 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.92% of the population), and there were 21 individuals (or about 0.79% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 10 (or about 0.38% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 person who was Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 133 (or about 5.01% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficie ...
or atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and 139 individuals (or about 5.23% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Chalais about 923 or (34.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education
Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...
, and 254 or (9.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
or a ''Fachhochschule
A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied ar ...
''). Of the 254 who completed tertiary schooling, 61.8% were Swiss men, 28.3% were Swiss women, 5.5% were non-Swiss men and 4.3% were non-Swiss women.[
, there was one student in Chalais who came from another municipality, while 204 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
Chalais is home to the ''Bibliothèque communale et scolaire de Chalais et Vercorin'' library. The library has () 16,102 books or other media, and loaned out 30,421 items in the same year. It was open a total of 191 days with average of 16 hours per week during that year.
]
Transportation
There is an aerial tramway (gondola lift
A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate s ...
) connecting the mountain village of Vercorin with Chalais which runs precisely every 15 minutes.
References
External links
Official website
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Valais
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