Mendrisio District


The Mendrisio District is the southernmost district of canton of Ticino and of Switzerland. To its north lies the Lugano District. It is surrounded on the other three sides by Italy: to the east and south by the province of Como, and to the west by the province of Varese. It has a population of .

Geography

The Mendrisio District has an area,, of. Of this area, or 25.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 60.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 18.7% is settled, or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.0% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.0% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 9.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area Out of the forested land, 57.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 11.9% is used for growing crops, while 4.0% is used for orchards or vine crops and 9.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the district is flowing water.

Demographics

The Mendrisio District has a population of. Of the Swiss national languages, 2,083 speak German, 534 people speak French, 41,239 people speak Italian, and 37 people speak Romansh. The remainder speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 48.0% male and 52.0% female. The population was made up of 17,942 Swiss men, and 5,508 non-Swiss men. There were 20,501 Swiss women, and 4,900 non-Swiss women.
In there were 351 live births to Swiss citizens and 80 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 352 deaths of Swiss citizens and 82 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 1 while the foreign population decreased by 2. There were 4 Swiss men and 8 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 300 non-Swiss men and 265 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 was an increase of 193 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 291 people. This represents a population growth rate of 1.0%.
The age distribution,, in the district of Mendrisio is: 4,222 children or 8.6% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 4,878 teenagers or 10.0% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 4,961 people or 10.2% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 6,695 people or 13.7% are between 30 and 39, 8,314 people or 17.0% are between 40 and 49, and 6,307 people or 12.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 6,030 people or 12.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 4,470 people or 9.2% are between 70 and 79, there are 2,974 people or 6.1% who are over 80.
there were 12,652 single family homes out of a total of 33,338 inhabited buildings. There were 5,081 two family buildings and 11,377 multi-family buildings. There were also 4,228 buildings in the district that were multipurpose buildings.
there were 22,972 apartments in the district. The most common apartment size was the 4 room apartment of which there were 6,999. There were 970 single room apartments and 5,308 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 19,597 apartments were permanently occupied, while 2,003 apartments were seasonally occupied and 1,372 apartments were empty.
The historical population is given in the following table:
yearpopulation
185017,372
188019,536
190024,292
195029,077
198041,638
199043,761
200045,724

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 28.56% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP, the SP and the Ticino League. In the federal election, a total of 17,043 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 52.7%.
In the Ticino Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 32,293 registered voters in the district of Mendrisio, of which 21,842 or 67.6% voted. 401 blank ballots and 57 null ballots were cast, leaving 21,384 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 5,495 or 25.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD+GenGiova, the PS and the SSI.
In the Ticino Consiglio di Stato election, 301 blank ballots and 103 null ballots were cast, leaving 21,441 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 5,175 or 24.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD, the PS and the LEGA.

Religion

From the, 38,182 or 83.5% were Roman Catholic, while 1,914 or 4.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 3,943 individuals who belong to another church, and 1,685 individuals did not answer the question.

Education

In the Mendrisio District there was a total of 7,465 students. The Ticino education system provides up to three years of non-mandatory kindergarten and in Mendrisio District there were 1,213 children in kindergarten. The primary school program lasts for five years and includes both a standard school and a special school. In the district, 2,188 students attended the standard primary schools and 91 students attended the special school. 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. There were 1,913 students in the two-year middle school and 24 in their pre-apprenticeship, while 809 students were in the four-year advanced program.
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 or may attend school followed by an internship or apprenticeship. There were 500 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 648 who attend part-time.
The professional program lasts three years and prepares a student for a job in engineering, nursing, computer science, business, tourism and similar fields. There were 79 students in the professional program.

Circles and municipalities

The Mendrisio District has 13 municipalities divided in 5 circles :









Old municipalities

Some municipalities were merged in recent years: