Of the agricultural land, 5.7% is used for growing crops and 9.1% is used for alpine pastures.

[4] As of 2008[update], the gender distribution of the population was 47.8% male and 52.2% female.

[6] The age distribution, as of 2009[update], in the Lugano District is: 13,106 children or 9.2% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 14,319 teenagers or 10.1% 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 26.24% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 38,965 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.5%.

[10] In the 2007[update] Ticino Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 83,196 registered voters in the Lugano District, of which 49,848 or 59.9% voted.

[11] From the 2000 census[update], 94,365 or 73.4% were Roman Catholic, while 9,965 or 7.7% 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.