Grafschaft is a former

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

in the district of Goms 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. In 2000 the municipality was created with the merger of Biel (VS), Ritzingen and Selkingen.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office Retrieved 19 July 2011 On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Grafschaft,

Blitzingen Blitzingen is a former municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Blitzingen, Grafschaft, Münster-Geschinen, Niederwald and Reckingen-Gluringen merged into the ...

Münster-Geschinen Münster-Geschinen is a former municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It was formed in 2004, from the union of the municipalities of Münster and Geschinen.Niederwald and

Reckingen-Gluringen Reckingen-Gluringen is a former municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It was formed in 2004 from the union of the villages and municipalities of Reckingen and Gluringen.Goms.

History

Grafschaft was created in 2000 through the merger of Biel (VS), Ritzingen and Selkingen. Biel was first mentioned in 1277 as ''Buele''. Starting in the 13th Century, Ritzingen gradually became a municipality. By the 16th Century the traditional practices and pastures of the farmers were finally codified into laws. Selkingen was first mentioned in 1374 as ''villa de Selgingen''.

Geography

Grafschaft had an area, , of . Of this area, 27.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 20.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and 50.4% is unproductive land.

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 vi ...

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 its ...

is ''Azure a Crozier Or issuiant from base surrounded with three Mullets of five of the same.''

Demographics

Grafschaft had a population () of 206. , 7.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
Retrieved 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -4.3%. It has changed at a rate of 3.4% due to migration and at a rate of -3.4% due to births and deaths.
Retrieved 7 September 2011 Most of the population () speaks

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 **Ge ...

(186 or 96.9%) as their first language,

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

is the second most common (4 or 2.1%) and French is the third (1 or 0.5%). , the gender distribution of the population was 47.7% male and 52.3% female. The population was made up of 90 Swiss men (45.2% of the population) and 5 (2.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 93 Swiss women (46.7%) and 11 (5.5%) non-Swiss women.Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls
Retrieved 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality 109 or about 56.8% were born in Grafschaft and lived there in 2000. There were 53 or 27.6% who were born in the same canton, while 15 or 7.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 10 or 5.2% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 54.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 22.9%. , there were 73 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 102 married individuals, 13 widows or widowers and 4 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
Retrieved 2 February 2011 , there were 69 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 24 households that consist of only one person and 3 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 70 households that answered this question, 34.3% were households made up of just one person and there was 1 adult who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 15 married couples without children, 24 married couples with children There were 4 single parents with a child or children. There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 1 household that was made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 72 single family homes (or 45.0% of the total) out of a total of 160 inhabited buildings. There were 73 multi-family buildings (45.6%), along with 8 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (5.0%) and 7 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.4%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
Retrieved 28 January 2011 , a total of 69 apartments (23.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 191 apartments (65.2%) were seasonally occupied and 33 apartments (11.3%) were empty. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:360 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:70 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:14 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:356 text:"356" bar:1860 from:start till:319 text:"319" bar:1870 from:start till:338 text:"338" bar:1880 from:start till:332 text:"332" bar:1888 from:start till:303 text:"303" bar:1900 from:start till:298 text:"298" bar:1910 from:start till:301 text:"301" bar:1920 from:start till:295 text:"295" bar:1930 from:start till:292 text:"292" bar:1941 from:start till:309 text:"309" bar:1950 from:start till:302 text:"302" bar:1960 from:start till:266 text:"266" bar:1970 from:start till:229 text:"229" bar:1980 from:start till:195 text:"195" bar:1990 from:start till:194 text:"194" bar:2000 from:start till:192 text:"192"

Sights

The entire villages of Biel, Ritzingen and Selkingen are designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

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 ...

the most popular party was the CVP which received 58.79% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (18.94%), the SVP (18.18%) and the FDP (3.03%). In the federal election, a total of 97 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 54.8%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 90 votes were cast, of which 9 or about 10.0% were invalid. The voter participation was 53.6%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 97 votes were cast, of which 2 or about 2.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 54.8%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.

Economy

, Grafschaft had an unemployment rate of 1.3%. , there were 19 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 3 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 constructi ...

and there were 2 businesses in this sector. 32 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 second ...

, with 9 businesses in this sector. There were 90 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.4% 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 40. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 16, of which 10 were in agriculture and 6 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3 of which 2 or (66.7%) were in manufacturing and 1 was in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 21. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 9.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 9.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 12 or 57.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, .Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
Retrieved 28 January 2011 , there were 31 workers who commuted into the municipality and 50 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 16.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 178 or 92.7% 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 let ...

, while 10 or 5.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.04% of the population).

Education

In Grafschaft about 77 or (40.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 8 or (4.2%) 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. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 8 who completed tertiary schooling, 87.5% were Swiss men, 0.0% were Swiss women. , there were 13 students in Grafschaft who came from another municipality, while 20 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website
* {{Authority control Former municipalities of Valais