The canton of Lucerne ( ; ; ; ) is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the country's central, German-speaking part. The population of the canton (as of ) is . , the population included 57,268 foreigners, or about 15.8% of the total population. The cantonal capital is the city of Lucerne.
History
The canton of Lucerne comprises territories acquired by its capital Lucerne, either by treaty, armed occupation or purchase. The first town acquired was Weggis (in 1380), Rothenburg, Kriens, Horw, Sempach and Hochdorf (all in 1394), Wolhusen and Entlebuch (1405), the so-called "Habsburger region" to the northeast of the town of Lucerne (1406), Willisau (1407), Sursee and Beromünster (1415), Malters (1477) and Littau (1481), while in 1803, in exchange for Hitzkirch, Merenschwand (held since 1397) was given up.
Prehistory
thumb|left|upright|Reconstruction of several stilt houses at [[Wauwilermoos pile dwelling settlement (Egolzwil 3)|Wauwilermoos]]
The oldest traces of humans in the Lucerne area are stone artifacts and cave bear bones found in the Steigelfadbalm cave on Mt. Rigi from the Middle Paleolithic or about 30,000 BC. Other animal bones including mammoth, reindeer and giant deer from the local glacial maximum have also been found in the canton. Around 17,000 BC the glaciers disappeared from the Swiss plateau and recolonization is likely at that time.
The first Paleolithic and Mesolithic settlement discovered in the canton is in the Wauwilermoos, which is now a Swiss heritage site of national significance. A number of other settlements have since been found, mainly on sandy, dry elevations in the immediate vicinity of water. The settlements of Egolzwil 3 in Wauwilermoos in Egolzwil, Seematte at Hitzkirch and Halbinsel in Sursee are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Wauwilermoos houses had wooden or bark floors and hearths of clay. The villages had ceramic vessels and wood, bone, antler, stone and flint tools as well as textiles. Copper ax blades and knives provide the first evidence of metal use in Switzerland. Imported mollusks show that there were trade connections to the Mediterranean. The bones at Egolzwil 3 are over two thirds from domestic animals with the remainder from wild animals. The main domesticated animals were sheep, goats and pigs with only a few domestic cattle. The animals hunted included deer, roe deer, wild boar and elk.
Geography
The canton of Lucerne is part of Central Switzerland. The lands of the canton lie on the northern foothills of the Swiss Alps (Urner Alps). The highest elevation of the canton of Lucerne is at the Brienzer Rothorn at .
It borders the cantons of Obwalden and Nidwalden to the south, Schwyz and Zug to the east, Aargau to the north, and Bern to the west.
Its territory corresponds to the subject territories acquired by the city of Lucerne during the 14th and 15th centuries, including:
Lucerne proper at the outflow of the Reuss river from Lake Lucerne;
the stretch of the Reuss river between Lucerne and Honau, along Rooterberg hill (connecting to Lake Zug with the territory of Meierskappel municipality);
the Kleine Emme basin (including its tributaries Entle and Rümlig);
the tributaries of the Aare between Napf and Lindenberg, including (west to east) Wigger, Suhre (Lake Sempach), Wyna, Aabach (Lake Hallwil, Lake Baldegg);
two territories connected only by water, across Lake Lucerne: the northern slope of Bürgenstock (part of Lucerne municipality), and the municipalities of Greppen, Weggis and Vitznau on the western and south-western slopes of Mount Rigi.
The area of the canton is . , about 55% of the total land area, is used for agriculture. An additional (about 30%) of the canton is wooded. The remainder of the canton is either developed, (8.4%), or unproductive (lakes, rivers or mountains), (6.8%).
Political subdivisions
thumb|Districts and municipalities (as of 2025)
The Canton is divided into six districts (Wahlkreise):
Entlebuch, Hochdorf, Luzern-Land,
Luzern-Stadt, Sursee, Willisau.
Before 2007, the districts were called Ämter. There were five districts until 2013, when Luzern District was divided into Luzern-Land and Luzern-Stadt, the latter corresponding to the city of Lucerne proper (including Littau, incorporated into Lucerne in 2010).
There are 79 municipalities in the canton ().
Politics
Cantonal politics and government
The Constitution of Lucerne of 2007 entered into force on 1 January 2008, replacing the 1875 constitution.
With the new constitution, the legislative body Grosser Rat (Grand Council) was renamed to Kantonsrat (Cantonal Council). It is composed of 120 members elected by proportional representation.
The executive body is the Regierungsrat (Government Council), composed of 5 members.
The Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP) is traditionally the largest party, having won 38 seats in the Cantonal Council as of the 2015 elections, and having two out of five members in the Government Council .
Federal election results
{| class="wikitable sortable" style ="text-align: center"
|-
! colspan="15"| Percentage of the total vote per party in the canton in the Federal Elections 1971-2015
|-
! colspan="2" | Party !! class="unsortable" | Ideology !! 1971 !! 1975 !! 1979 !! 1983 !! 1987 !! 1991 !! 1995 !! 1999 !! 2003 !! 2007 !! 2011 !! 2015
|-
! FDP.The Liberals
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Classical liberalism || 30.0 || 29.1 || 31.7 || 28.6 || 29.8 || 27.9 || 25.5 || 22.6 || 23.1 || 21.8 || 18.4 || 18.5
|-
! CVP/PDC/PPD/PCD
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Christian democracy || 48.8 || 50.1 || 50.4 || 49.6 || 47.0 || 48.6 || 37.3 || 33.8 || 29.5 || 30.2 || 27.1 || 23.9
|-
! SP/PS
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Social democracy || 12.4 || 13.4 || 12.5 || 11.8 || 9.0 || 11.0 || 11.7 || 10.0 || 11.1 || 11.5 || 11.5 || 13.6
|-
! SVP/UDC
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Swiss nationalism || * || * || * || * || * || * || 14.1 || 22.8 || 22.9 || 25.3 || 25.1 || 28.5
|-
! Ring of Independents
| || Social liberalism || 8.7 || 5.3 || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || *
|-
! EVP/PEV
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Christian democracy || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || 0.8 || 0.7 || 0.7 || 0.6
|-
! CSP/PCS
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Christian socialism || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || 0.5 || * || * || * || *
|-
! GLP/PVL
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Green liberalism || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || 6.1 || 5.8
|-
! BDP/PBD
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Conservatism || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || * || 2.1 || 1.4
|-
! POCH
| || Communism || * || 1.8 || 5.1 || 8.4 || || * || * || * || * || * || * || *
|-
! GPS/PES
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Green politics || * || * || * || * || * || 9.3 || 8.1 || 8.0 || 9.8 || 9.5 || 8.3 || 7.1
|-
! FGA
| || Feminism || * || * || * || * || 8.7 || || 0.8 || * || * || * || * || *
|-
! SD/DS
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || National conservatism || * || * || * || 1.3 || 1.4 || 2.8 || 2.2 || 0.8 || 0.4 || * || 0.2 || 0.1
|-
! FPS/PSL
| style="color:inherit;background:"| || Right-wing populism || * || * || * || * || 3.4 || * || * || 0.3 || * || * || * || *
|-
! Other
| || || * || 0.4 || 0.2 || 0.3 || 0.6 || 0.4 || 0.4 || 1.1 || 2.5 || 1.0 || 0.5 || 0.7
|-
! Voter participation % || || || 66.3 || 63.9 || 59.2 || 60.5 || 54.3 || 50.5 || 49.4 || 52.9 || 50.9 || 53.0 || 50.9 || 50.9
|-
|}
: FDP before 2009, FDP.The Liberals after 2009
: "*" indicates that the party was not on the ballot in this canton.
: Part of a coalition with the FGA
: Part of a coalition with the Green Party
Demographics
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Largest groups of foreign residents 2013
|-
!Nationality || Numbers || % of total<br />(% of foreigners)
|-
|||| 14,093 || 3.6 (20.0)
|-
|| || 7,147 || 1.8 (10.1)
|-
|||| 7,063 || 1.8 (10.0)
|-
|||| 6,641 || 1.7 (9.4)
|-
|||| 5,986 || 1.5 (8.5)
|-
|||| 2,299 || 0.6 (3.3)
|-
|||| 2,203 || 0.6 (3.1)
|-
|||| 2,137 || 0.5 (3.0)
|-
|||| 2,037 || 0.5 (2.9)
|-
|||| 1,624 || 0.4 (2.3)
|-
|||| 1,567 || 0.4 (2.2)
|-
|||| 1,477 || 0.4 (2.1)
|}
Lucerne has a population () of . , 18.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals, of which 15.5% are from Europe, 1.4% from Asia, 0.7% from Africa, and 0.5% from America.
Most of the population () speaks German (91%) as their first language, while Serbo-Croatian, Italian, Albanian and English are the second most common languages (3%), followed by Portuguese and French with 2% each, and Spanish with 1%.
Of the population in the canton, 115,233 or about 32.9% were born in Lucerne and lived there in 2000. There were 101,980 or 29.1% who were born in the same canton, while 66,486 or 19.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 55,314 or 15.8% were born outside of Switzerland.
, there were 13,430 private households in the canton, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. The vacancy rate for the canton, , was 0.77%.
<timeline>
Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)
id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)
ImageSize = width:800 height:500
PlotArea = top:10 left: 100 bottom:90 right:100
Legend = columns:3 left:220 top:70 columnwidth:160
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:360000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:70000 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:14000 start:0
Colors=
id:TO value:yellowgreen legend:Total
id:GE value:teal legend:German_Speaking
id:IT value:green legend:Italian_Speaking
id:PR value:lightpurple legend:Protestant
id:CA value:oceanblue legend:Catholic
id:SW value:red legend:Swiss
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1850 from:start till:132843 text:"132,843" color:TO
bar:1880 from:start till:134708 text:"134,708" color:TO
bar:1900 from:start till:146519 text:"146,519" color:TO
bar:1950 from:start till:223249 text:"223,249" color:TO
bar:1970 from:start till:289641 text:"289,641" color:TO
bar:2000 from:start till:350504 text:"350,504" color:TO
LineData =
points:(229,239)(343,249) color:GE
points:(343,249)(457,331) color:GE
points:(457,331)(571,383) color:GE
points:(571,383)(686,436) color:GE
points:(229,90)(343,92) color:IT
points:(343,92)(457,94) color:IT
points:(457,94)(571,107) color:IT
points:(571,107)(686,98) color:IT
points:(114,92)(229,96) color:PR
points:(229,96)(343,103) color:PR
points:(343,103)(457,124) color:PR
points:(457,124)(571,133) color:PR
points:(571,133)(686,138) color:PR
points:(114,236)(229,234) color:CA
points:(229,234)(343,239) color:CA
points:(343,239)(457,301) color:CA
points:(457,301)(571,364) color:CA
points:(571,364)(686,366) color:CA
points:(114,237)(229,237) color:SW
points:(229,237)(343,246) color:SW
points:(343,246)(457,331) color:SW
points:(457,331)(571,378) color:SW
points:(571,378)(686,417) color:SW
</timeline>
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed"
|-
!colspan=10|Demographic history of the Canton of Luzern 1850–2000
|-
| Year ||1850||1880|| 1900|| 1950|| 1970|| 2000
|-align="right"
| Population || 132,843 || 134,708 || 146,519 || 223,249 || 289,641 || 350,504
|-align="right"
| Percent of Total Swiss Population || 5.6% || 4.8% || 4.4% || 4.7% || 4.6% || 4.8%
|-
| Language || || || || || ||
|-align="right"
| German || || 134,155 || 143,337 || 216,647 || 263,310 || 311,543
|-align="right"
| Italian || || 294 || 2,204 || 3,587 || 15,635 || 6,801
|-align="right"
| French || || 302 || 747 || 2,150 || 2,015 || 2,053
|-align="right"
| Romansh || || 5 || 64 || 338 || 525 || 388
|-align="right"
| Other || || 50 || 167 || 527 || 8,156 || 29,719
|-
| Religion || || || || || ||
|-align="right"
| Catholic || 131,280 || 129,172 || 134,020 || 189,917 || 246,888 || 248,545
|-align="right"
| Protestant || 1,563 || 5,419 || 12,085 || 30,396 || 38,639 || 42,926
|-align="right"
| Christian Catholic || || || || 1,129 || 741 || 471
|-align="right"
| Other || || 215 || 414 || 1,807 || 3,373 || 58,562
|-align="right"
| Other, Jewish || || 152 || 319 || 497 || 563 || 399
|-align="right"
| Other, Islam || || || || || 372 || 13,227
|-align="right"
| Other, None || || || || || 1,672 || 20,681
|-
| Nationality || || || || || ||
|-align="right"
| Swiss || 132,252 || 132,583 || 140,176 || 216,600 || 259,498 || 294,709
|-align="right"
| Foreign || 591 || 2,223 || 6,343 || 6,649 || 30,143 || 55,795
|-
|colspan=10|Source:
Of the working population, 12.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.5% used a private car.