[2] The Locarno District has an area, as of 1997[update], of 551.08 square kilometers (212.77 sq mi).

[4] As of 2008[update], the gender distribution of the population was 47.5% male and 52.5% female.

[6] The age distribution, as of 2009[update], in the Locarno District is: 5,081 children or 8.2% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 5,956 teenagers or 9.6% 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 30.3% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 16,768 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.5%.

[10] In the 2007[update] Ticino Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 39,570 registered voters in the Locarno District, of which 21,970 or 55.5% voted.

[11] From the 2000 census[update], 41,145 or 71.8% were Roman Catholic, while 6,229 or 10.9% 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.