Bironico is a village in the northern end of the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
The municipalities of Medeglia, Bironico, Camignolo, Rivera and Sigirino merged on 21 November 2010 into the new municipality of Monteceneri.
History
Bironico is first mentioned in 1296 as Bironico.
Bironico is located south of the Monte Ceneri Pass and north of the district seat Lugano. Its area code is 091. Neighbouring villages are Camignolo to the south, Medeglia to the north and Rivera to the west.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a castle argent in front of a patriarchal cross bottony or and in chief on a sword of the second hilted and pommed of the third a cloak gules. The castle represents a castle erected in 1418 by the Count Giov. Giacomo Rusca. The patriarchal cross is that of the Cardinal Agostino Oreggio from Bironico, archbishop of Benevento from 1633 to 1635 and the sword and cloak is from S. Martin, the patron saint of the church.
Demographics
, 18.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997-2007) the population has changed at a rate of 21%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (91.0%), with German being second most common (3.3%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (2.1%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 17 speak German, 1 person speaks French, 466 people speak Italian, and 2 people speak Romansh. The remainder (26 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.9% male and 49.1% female. The population was made up of 262 Swiss men (41.9% of the population), and 56 (9.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 261 Swiss women (41.8%), and 46 (7.4%) non-Swiss women.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.61 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.6 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 48.1% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 212 private households in the village, and an average of 2.4 persons per household.
The vacancy rate for the village, , was 0.37%. there were 252 apartments in the village. The most common apartment size was the 4 room apartment of which there were 80. There were 14 single room apartments and 65 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 212 apartments (84.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 39 apartments (15.5%) were seasonally occupied and 1 apartments (0.4%) were empty.
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Heritage sites of national significance
The Ruderi Del Castello Di S. Sofia and Stazione Radio Monte Ceneri (shared with Rivera) are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 37.02% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (25.83%), the Ticino League (12.5%) and the SVP (11.67%). In the federal election, a total of 190 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.7%.
In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 373 registered voters in Bironico, of which 266 or 71.3% voted. 4 blank ballots were cast, leaving 262 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 99 or 37.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD+GenGiova (with 66 or 25.2%), the LEGA (with 36 or 13.7%) and the SSI (with 29 or 11.1%).
In the Consiglio di Stato election, 2 blank ballots were cast, leaving 264 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 96 or 36.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD (with 68 or 25.8%), the LEGA (with 42 or 15.9%) and the SSI (with 29 or 11.0%). Of the working population, 4.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 67.5% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 432 or 84.4% were Roman Catholic, while 22 or 4.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There are 40 individuals (or about 7.81% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 18 individuals (or about 3.52% of the population) did not answer the question. There were 5 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 20 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 was 1 student in the professional program.
, there were 17 students in Bironico who came from another village, while 77 residents attended schools outside the village.