Chalais (French pronunciation: [ʃalɛ]) is a municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

[3] Chalais has an area, as of 2009[update], of 24.5 square kilometers (9.5 sq mi).

[4] The municipality is located in the Sierre district, on the left side of the Rhone river.

It consists of the villages of Chalais and Réchy on the edge of the valley along with Brie and Vercorin on a terrace in the mountains.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent, between a Cross pattee Vert overall four Mullets of Five Gules.

[8] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks French (2,397 or 90.2%) as their first language, German is the second most common (116 or 4.4%) and Italian is the third (59 or 2.2%).

[8] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][12] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 28.67% of the vote.

[14] In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 1,164 votes were cast, of which 70 or about 6.0% were invalid.

[8] There were 1,297 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.6% of the workforce.

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 47, of which 34 were in agriculture and 13 were in forestry or lumber production.

In the tertiary sector; 75 or 24.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 19 or 6.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 53 or 17.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 7 or 2.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 23 or 7.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 21 or 6.9% were in education and 59 or 19.3% were in health care.

[8] From the 2000 census[update], 2,222 or 83.6% were Roman Catholic, while 87 or 3.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

[18] There is an aerial tramway (gondola lift) connecting the mountain village of Vercorin with Chalais which runs precisely every 15 minutes.