[2] The district has an area, (based on the 2004/09/16 survey) of 205.68 km2 (79.41 sq mi)[1].

[4] As of 2008[update], the gender distribution of the population was 48.3% male and 51.7% female.

[6] The age distribution, as of 2009[update], in the district is; 4,644 children or 9.6% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 4,796 teenagers or 9.9% are between 10 and 19.

[8] The historical population is given in the following table:[9] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 32.78% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 13,901 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.7%.

[10] In the 2007[update] Ticino Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 28,519 registered voters in the district, of which 19,508 or 68.4% voted.

[11] From the 2000 census[update], 33,661 or 77.6% were Roman Catholic, while 1,908 or 4.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

In the lower secondary school system, students either attend a two-year middle school followed by a two-year pre-apprenticeship or they attend a four-year program to prepare for higher education.

The upper secondary school includes several options, but at the end of the upper secondary program, a student will be prepared to enter a trade or to continue on to a university or college.

In Ticino, vocational students may either attend school while working on their internship or apprenticeship (which takes three or four years) or may attend school followed by an internship or apprenticeship (which takes one year as a full-time student or one and a half to two years as a part-time student).

The professional program lasts three years and prepares a student for a job in engineering, nursing, computer science, business, tourism and similar fields.