Valchava is a village in the

Val Müstair Val Müstair (german: Münstertal) is a municipality in the Engiadina Bassa/Val Müstair Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. It was formed on 1 January 2009 through the merger of Tschierv, Fuldera, Lü, Valchava, Santa Maria Val Mü ...

(''Müstair valley'') of the canton of Graubünden (Grisons), Switzerland. It was an independent

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 Inn until on 1 January 2009 Valchava merged with

Fuldera Fuldera is a village in the Val Müstair municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Inn District, Switzerland, Inn in the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden. In 2009 Fuldera merged with Lü, Switz ...

, Lü, Müstair,

Santa Maria Val Müstair Santa Maria Val Müstair ( rm, Soncha Maria) is a village in the Val Müstair municipality in the district of Inn in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. In 2009 Santa Maria Val Müstair merged with Lü, Müstair, Fuldera, Tschierv and Valchava to ...

and

Tschierv Tschierv is a village in the Val Müstair municipality in the district of Inn in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. In 2009 Tschierv merged with Fuldera, Lü, Müstair, Santa Maria Val Müstair and Valchava to form the municipality of Val M� ...

to form Val Müstair.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 23 September 2009

History

Valchava is first mentioned in 1331 as ''Valchava''.

Geography

Valchava has an area, , of . Of this area, 46% is used for agricultural purposes, while 33.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (18.7%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The village is located in the Val Müstair sub-district (now Val Müstair municipality) of the Inn district. It consists of the

linear village Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...

of Valchava above

and the alpine settlements of Chaunt and Valpaschun. Until 1943 Valchava was known as Valcava.

Demographics

Valchava has a population () of 203, of which 3.4% are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -12%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 14-Oct-2009 , the gender distribution of the population was 51.0% male and 49.0% female.Graubunden in Numbers
accessed 21 September 2009 The age distribution, , in Valchava is; 19 children or 9.4% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old. 19 teenagers or 9.4% are 10 to 14, and 12 teenagers or 5.9% are 15 to 19. Of the adult population, 20 people or 9.9% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 31 people or 15.3% are 30 to 39, 30 people or 14.9% are 40 to 49, and 25 people or 12.4% are 50 to 59. The senior population distribution is 24 people or 11.9% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 16 people or 7.9% are 70 to 79, there are 5 people or 2.5% who are 80 to 89, and there is 1 person who is 90 to 99.Graubunden Population Statistics
accessed 21 September 2009 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 SVP which received 50.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (37.4%), the CVP (8.9%) and the FDP (3%). In Valchava about 45.6% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a '' Fachhochschule''). Valchava has an unemployment rate of 0.33%. , there were 15 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 14 people are 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 are 5 businesses in this sector. 24 people are 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 7 businesses in this sector. The historical population is given in the following table:

Languages

Most of the population () speaks

Rhaeto-Romance Rhaeto-Romance, Rheto-Romance, or Rhaetian, is a purported subfamily of the Romance languages that is spoken in south-eastern Switzerland and north-eastern Italy. The name "Rhaeto-Romance" refers to the former Roman province of Raetia. The questi ...

(80.7%), with German being second most common (18.3%) and Italian being third ( 1.0%). The Romansh speaking population speaks the Jauer dialect. In 1880 about 69% of the population spoke Romansh as a first language. In 1910 it was 72%, in 1941 it was 75% and in 1970 it was 90%. In 1990 about 92% understood Romansh even if it wasn't their first language, and in 2000 it was also 92%.

References

External links

Valchava
official site * {{Authority control Val Müstair Former municipalities of Graubünden