Cerniat is first mentioned in 1288 as Sernia. Charmey is first mentioned in 1211 as Chalmeis. Until 1760 it was known as Feiguières. The municipality is also informally known by its German nameGalmis.
Geography
After the 2014 merger Val-de-Charmey had an area of. Of this area, about 43.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 41.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.1% is settled and 12.2% is unproductive land. In the 2013/18 survey a total of or about 1.2% of the total area was covered with buildings, an increase of over the 1980/81 amount. Over the same time period, the amount of recreational space in the municipality increased by and is now about 0.04% of the total area. Of the agricultural land, is used for orchards and vineyards, is fields and grasslands and consists of alpine grazing areas. Since 1980/81 the amount of agricultural land has decreased by. Over the same time period the amount of forested land has increased by. Rivers and lakes cover in the municipality.
Demographics
Val-de-Charmey has a population of. , 16.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. In 2015 a small minority was born in France. Over the last 6 years the population has changed at a rate of 11.65%. The birth rate in the municipality, in 2016, was 7.4, while the death rate was 16.9 per thousand residents. , children and teenagers make up 18.8% of the population, while adults are 57.5% of the population and seniors make up 23.7%. In 2015 there were 948 single residents, 1,102 people who were married or in a civil partnership, 160 widows or widowers and 206 divorced residents. In 2016 there were 1,087 private households in Val-de-Charmey with an average household size of 2.19 persons. In 2015 about 61.6% of all buildings in the municipality were single family homes, which is about the same as the percentage in the canton and about the same as the percentage nationally. In 2015 the rate of construction of new housing units per 1000 residents was 3.31. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 0.36%.
Val-de-Charmey is classed as a mixed agro-industrial community, a municipality where agriculture and manufacturing play a significant role in the economy. , there were a total of 1,095 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 135 people worked in 39 businesses in the primary economic sector. The secondary sector employed 328 workers in 48 separate businesses. Finally, the tertiary sector provided 632 jobs in 128 businesses, of which 205 people worked in large business. In 2016 a total of 3.3% of the population received social assistance. In 2015 the average cantonal, municipal and church tax rate in the municipality for a couple with two children making was 4.8% while the rate for a single person making was 19.5%, both of which are close to the average for the canton. The canton has an average tax rate for those making and a slightly higher than average rate for those making.
Politics
In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the CVP with 31.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP, the FDP and the SP. In the federal election, a total of 865 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 52.3%.
Crime
In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the Swiss Criminal Code, in Val-de-Charmey was 46.7 per thousand residents. This rate is about 72.3% of the average rate in the entire country. During the same period, the rate of drug crimes was 3.8 per thousand residents which is only 39.6% of the rate in the canton and 38.4% of the national rate. The rate of violations of immigration, visa and work permit laws was 5.1 per thousand residents.
