What is the most populous city in Canada?

The most populous city in Canada is Toronto. Located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, Toronto is the capital of Ontario and the country’s largest municipality by population.

The city’s modern population reflects decades of immigration and urban growth. Toronto became Canada’s largest city in the late twentieth century, eventually surpassing Montreal. The 1998 amalgamation joined the former municipalities of Toronto, North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, York, and East York into the present single-tier city.

Statistics Canada’s 2021 census recorded 2,794,356 residents within the City of Toronto. The wider Toronto census metropolitan area is much larger, with more than 6.2 million people in the same census period. That distinction explains why population figures for Toronto can vary depending on whether a source means the city proper or the surrounding metropolitan region.

Toronto is also Canada’s largest financial centre and a major hub for business, culture, education, media, and technology. A common mix-up is choosing Vancouver or Montreal: both are major Canadian cities, but neither has a larger city-proper population than Toronto.