[1] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks French (29,848 or 88.6%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (1,268 or 3.8%) and Italian is the third (818 or 2.4%).

[5] As of 2008[update], the gender distribution of the population was 49.4% male and 50.6% female.

[10] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 30.87% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 14,438 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 60.8%.

[12] In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 14,242 votes were cast, of which 1,055 or about 7.4% were invalid.

[13] From the 2000 census[update], 27,493 or 81.6% were Roman Catholic, while 1,624 or 4.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.