Clavaleyres is a municipality

Municipalities of Switzerland

Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district

Bern-Mittelland (administrative district)

Bern-Mittelland District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Bern-Mittelland administrative region, and is the only district in the region...

 in the canton

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Bern in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

History

Finds of bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 rings imply a settlement in the area during the La Tène culture

La Tène culture

The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....

. During the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 the area was an estate which supplied the nearby city of Aventicum

Aventicum

Aventicum was the largest town and capital of Roman Switzerland . Its remains are beside the modern town of Avenches....

. In the Middle Ages, Clavaleyres was under the lordship of the Münchenwiler

Münchenwiler

Münchenwiler is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.-History:...

 monastery. In 1527 the town was acquired by Bern. From 1798 to 1807, the town belonged to the canton of Fribourg

Canton of Fribourg

The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas is the German name for both the canton and the town.-History:...

, before it was finally returned to the canton of Bern. There have been various attempts to merge the municipality with Münchenwiler, another exclave of the canton of Bern in the nearby area. The proposals have failed because of the opposition of the inhabitants.

Geography

Clavaleyres has an area, , of 1.01 km² (0.38996318017846 sq mi). Of this area, 0.78 km² (0.301159683702177 sq mi) or 77.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.16 km² (0.0617763453748056 sq mi) or 15.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.04 km² (9.9 acre) or 4.0% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. 13.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 54.5% is used for growing crops and 21.8% is pastures.

It forms a German-speaking exclave in the French-speaking area of the canton of Fribourg. The area has lost population in the last century; in 1880 it had a population of 118; today it has only 54 inhabitants.

Demographics

Clavaleyres has a population (as of ) of . , 2.0% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -9.1%. Most of the population speaks German (88.7%), with French being second most common ( 9.4%) and Polish being third ( 1.9%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP

Swiss People's Party

The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 38.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (23.7%), the FDP

Free Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (17.2%) and the local small left-wing parties (9.1%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 64.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 9.4%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Clavaleyres about 75.7% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule

Fachhochschule

A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

Clavaleyres has an unemployment rate of 0%. , there were 24 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. No one is employed in the secondary sector. 7 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 1 business in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	31
1850	99
1880	118
1900	102
1950	72
2000	53