Sementina is a former municipality in the district of Bellinzona in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It ceased to exist on 2 April 2017 when it and the municipalities of Camorino, Claro, Giubiasco, Gnosca, Gorduno, Gudo, Moleno, Monte Carasso, Pianezzo, Preonzo, and Sant'Antonio were merged into the municipality of Bellinzona.
Geography
Sementina has an area, , of . Of this area, or 19.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 67.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 10.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 3.2% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 6.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.1%. Out of the forested land, 62.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 8.0% is used for growing crops, while 5.2% is used for orchards or vine crops and 6.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 2.2% is unproductive vegetation.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess Gules a Wall embatteded throughout with a Towered Gate all Argent and Azure a Bar wavy Argent.
Demographics
Sementina has a population () of . , 24.7% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 15.4%.
Most of the population () speaks Italian(87.2%), with German being second most common (5.1%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (1.6%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 136 speak German, 39 people speak French, 2,306 people speak Italian, and 4 people speak Romansh. The remainder (161 people) speak another language.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.0% male and 51.0% female. The population was made up of 1,090 Swiss men (35.8% of the population), and 401 (13.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,200 Swiss women (39.5%), and 350 (11.5%) non-Swiss women.
In there were 19 live births to Swiss citizens and 4 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 11 deaths of Swiss citizens and 3 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 8 while the foreign population increased by 1. There were 5 Swiss men and 2 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 10 non-Swiss men and 17 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was an increase of 47 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 3 people. This represents a population growth rate of 1.5%.
The age distribution, , in Sementina is; 329 children or 10.8% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 292 teenagers or 9.6% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 326 people or 10.7% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 487 people or 16.0% are between 30 and 39, 512 people or 16.8% are between 40 and 49, and 348 people or 11.4% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 397 people or 13.1% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 215 people or 7.1% are between 70 and 79, there are 135 people or 4.4% who are over 80.
, there were 1,072 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. there were 504 single family homes (or 73.6% of the total) out of a total of 685 inhabited buildings. There were 75 two family buildings (10.9%) and 68 multi-family buildings (9.9%). There were also 38 buildings in the municipality that were multipurpose buildings (used for both housing and commercial or another purpose).
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1%. there were 1,253 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 4 room apartment of which there were 494. There were 51 single room apartments and 214 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,062 apartments (84.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 155 apartments (12.4%) were seasonally occupied and 36 apartments (2.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 9.1 new units per 1000 residents.
The historical population is given in the following table:
Heritage sites of national significance
The Fortificazioni Ottocentesche (also known as the Fortini Della Fame, shared with Camorino and Monte Carasso) and the medieval settlement of S. Defendente are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.