Ronco sopra Ascona is a municipality near Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland around 5 kilometers along the shore north of the border with Italy. It lies on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, which stretches far to the south into Italy, being the second largest lake in Italy. It does not include the Brissago islands in the lake.
History
thumb|left|Aerial view (1946)
Ronco sopra Ascona is first mentioned in 1264 as Roncha. In 1498 it was mentioned as Ronca de Scona.
The municipality is located in the Locarno district. It consists of the village of Ronco sopra Ascona and the hamlets Fontana Martina and Porto Ronco.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Vert St. Marin armoured argent riding a horse sable cutting his cloak gules with a sword of the second giving it to a beggar of the same kneeling in the base.
Natives/residents
thumb|Self portrait of Antonio Ciseri
thumb|left|Remarque tomb
The painter Antonio Ciseri was born there in 1821.
German writer Erich Maria Remarque lived in Porto Ronco in the Casa Monte Tabor together with his wife, American actress Paulette Goddard, until he died in 1970. Paulette Goddard died there in 1990. The couple is buried alongside each other in Ronco's cemetery.
Demographics
Ronco sopra Ascona has a population () of . , 24.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -9.8%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian (61.5%), with German being second most common (33.7%) and Portuguese being third (1.7%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 222 speak German, 8 people speak French, 405 people speak Italian. The remainder (24 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.6% male and 49.4% female. The population was made up of 253 Swiss men (37.4% of the population), and 89 (13.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 256 Swiss women (37.9%), and 78 (11.5%) non-Swiss women.
, there were 343 private households in the municipality, and an average of 1.9 persons per household.
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%. there were 992 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 3 room apartment of which there were 298. There were 105 single room apartments and 154 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 341 apartments (34.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 643 apartments (64.8%) were seasonally occupied and 8 apartments (0.8%) were empty.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! year
! population
|-
| 1850
| 378
|-
| 1900
| 257
|-
| 1950
| 540
|-
| 1980
| 745
|-
| 1990
| 702
|-
| 2000
| 659
|-
|}
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 24.48% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (23.26%), the FDP (22.77%) and the Ticino League (11.48%). In the federal election, a total of 212 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 43.5%.
In the Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 482 registered voters in Ronco sopra Ascona, of which 241 or 50.0% voted. 1 blank ballot and 2 null ballots were cast, leaving 238 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 54 or 22.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PS (with 46 or 19.3%), the SSI (with 42 or 17.6%) and the UDC (with 34 or 14.3%).
In the Consiglio di Stato election, 1 blank ballot and 1 null ballot was cast, leaving 240 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PS which received 55 or 22.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PLRT (with 54 or 22.5%), the LEGA (with 53 or 22.1%) and the SSI (with 28 or 11.7%). Of the working population, 6.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 53.7% used a private car.
Religion
thumb|Church of Ronco sopra Ascona
From the , 407 or 61.8% were Roman Catholic, while 151 or 22.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There were 76 persons (or about 11.53% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 25 persons (or about 3.79% of the population) did not answer the question. There were 2 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 7 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 3 students in the professional program.
, there were 3 students in Ronco sopra Ascona who came from another municipality, while 66 residents attended schools outside the municipality.