or 46.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 7.3% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 31.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 9.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 2.4% is used for growing crops and 31.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The former municipality is located in the Lugano district, on Lake Lugano along the Swiss-Italian border, about from Lugano. The neighboring Italian town is called Lavena Ponte Tresa. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess gules and argent, four barrulets azure; resting upon the line of partition a five-arched bridge or, ensigned of a mule sable; swimming in the waters in base three eels sable. Demographics Ponte Tresa had a population (as of 2019) of 773. , 27.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 3.5%. Most of the population () speaks Italian (79.8%), with German being second most common (13.3%) and French being third (2.6%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 102 speak German, 20 people speak French, 614 people speak Italian, and 4 people speak Romansh. The remainder (29 people) speak another language. , the gender distribution of the population was 45.6% male and 54.4% female. The population was made up of 251 Swiss men (31.1% of the population), and 117 (14.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 332 Swiss women (41.1%), and 107 (13.3%) non-Swiss women. In there were 7 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 9 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 2 while the foreign population increased by 1. There was 1 Swiss man and 6 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 11 non-Swiss men and 10 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 9 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 13 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.5%.