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 and the remainder is non-productive. 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 and scatteredhamlets and single farm houses throughout the valley.
Safien had a population of 294. , 0.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -15%. Most of the population speaks German, with Italian being second most common and Albanian being third. , the gender distribution of the population was 49.5% male and 50.5% female. The age distribution,, in Safien is; 49 children or 15.9% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 43 teenagers or 14.0% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 24 people or 7.8% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 37 people or 12.0% are between 30 and 39, 39 people or 12.7% are between 40 and 49, and 36 people or 11.7% are between 50 and 59. The seniorpopulation distribution is 30 people or 9.7% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 28 people or 9.1% are between 70 and 79, there are 18 people or 5.8% who are between 80 and 89,and there are 4 people or 1.3% who are between 90 and 99. 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, the FDP and the CVP. In Safien about 61.7% of the population have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education. Safien has an unemployment rate of 0.46%. , there were 89 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 35 businesses involved in this sector. 15 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 3 businesses in this sector. 32 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 12 businesses in this sector. The historical population is given in the following table:
