Adligenswil is a spread out community on the north side of the valley of the Würzenbach river.

Of the rest of the land, 19.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.7%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Of the settled areas, 11.87% is covered with buildings, 1.14% is industrial, 1.14% is classed as special developments, 2% is parks or greenbelts and 3.29% is transportation infrastructure.

[4] The neighboring municipalities are Dierikon to the north, Udligenswil to the north-east, Küssnacht to the east, Meggen to the south, Lucerne in the south-west and Ebikon in the north-west.

Until long into the 20th century, Adligenswil retained an exclusively Roman Catholic population.

As of the 2000 census[update] the religious membership of Adligenswil was; 3,221 (64.3%) were Roman Catholic, and 1,001 (20.%) were Protestant, with an additional 45 (0.9%) that were of some other Christian faith.

[4] From 1798 until 1970, the population increased only slowly, from 433 to 953 inhabitants, so Adligenswil retained the character of a peasant village.

The historical population is given in the following table:[5] For a long time three of the five seats on the municipal council have been held by women.

[3] The current membership of the town council is:[7] The proportion of the employed citizens working in agriculture has dropped sharply in the last decade.

The biggest employers are the printing company Ringier and the market research institute DemoScope, which is now closed.