Safien is a former municipality in the district of Surselva in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. The municipalities of Valendas, Versam, Safien and Tenna merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Safiental.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013
History Safien is first mentioned in 1219 as Stosavia.
Geography
Safien had an area, , of . Of this area, 45.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 18.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (35.4%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).
The former municipality was the capital of the Safien sub-district of the Surselva district in the mid and upper Safien valley. The only other municipality in the sub-district was Tenna, which occupied the lower Safien valley. The valley is drained by the Rabiusa river.
The former municipality consists of the village of Safien-Platz (elevation: ) and scattered hamlets and single farm houses throughout the valley.
Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Cross gyronny Argent and Sable accessed 02-Dec-2009 It is based on the simple design of the sub-district, with different colors.
Demographics
, Safien has a population of 294.Swiss Federal Statistics Office – STAT-TAB Ständige und Nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Region, Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter accessed 3 October 2012 The historical population is given in the following table: year population 1803 770 1850 685 1900 455 1950 453 2000 308 2010 305
, 0.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.
most of the population speaks Swiss German (96.1%), with Swiss Italian being second most common ( 1.6%) and Albanian being third ( 1.6%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 02-Dec-2009 the gender distribution was 49.5% male and 50.5% female.Graubunden in Numbers accessed 21 September 2009 the age distribution was as follows:Graubunden Population Statistics accessed 21 September 2009
Age group Population % of total Children (0-9yrs) 49 15.9% Teenagers (10-19yrs) 43 14.0% Adults (20-29yrs) 24 7.8% Adults (30-39yrs) 37 12.0% Adults (40-49yrs) 39 12.7% Adults (50-59yrs) 36 11.7% Seniors (60-69yrs) 30 9.7% Seniors (70-79yrs) 28 9.1% Seniors (80-89yrs) 18 5.8% Seniors (90-99yrs) 4 1.3% Total 308 100%
Education Around 61.7% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). The nearest fachhochschules to Safien are in Chur, such as the Chur University of Applied Sciences and Fachhochschule Graubünden.
Politics In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 62.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (18.8%), the FDP (7.4%) and the CVP (5.4%).
Economy
, Safien has an unemployment rate of 0.46%. Employment and businesses were organized as follows:
Sector People Employed Businesses Involved Primary (raw materials) 89 35 Secondary (manufacturing) 15 3 Tertiary (service) 32 12
References
External links
Official website (in German)