The population of the entire district in the census of 1935, divided by ethnicity, was as follows: 60,145 Latvians, 45,885 Russians, 1,558 Jews and 648 Belarusians. The demographics differed sharply on either side of the Viļaka ridge, which bisects the district – the eastern civil parishes had small ethnic Latvian minorities: 17% in Kacēnu "pagasts", 5% in Linavas "pagasts", 32% in Purvmalas "pagasts", 5% in Augšpils "pagasts", and 4% in Gauru "pagasts". The civil parishes immediately to the west had strong Latvian majorities, ranging from 71% in Šķilbēnu "pagasts" to 91% in Viļakas "pagasts". The town of Abrene itself, which developed around the Pytalovo railroad station, had 1,242 inhabitants, 484 of them ethnic Latvians.