Population of Cities in Canada (2020)

Canada is made up of provinces and territories, and has cities of all sizes contributing to its population, which is one of the largest in the world. There are three different territories in the country and a total of 10 provinces. These geographical areas are divided as such to govern over specific geographic areas.

When looking at the cities of Canada, the designations that make an area a 'city' varies by province. For example, any area that is qualified as a city in the province of Alberta must have a population that exceeds 10,000 people, along with other criteria including the size of land parcels of the area's buildings. On the other hand, in British Columbia, a community can qualify as a city with just a population of over 5,000 residents, even if this number drops in the future. British Columbia even has a city, Greenwood, which has a population of less than 1,000 because it was once much larger. The province of Quebec doesn't even have the designations of city -- it is comprised of "villes," cities or towns that aren't counted by size, although the province does have separate municipalities.

Just over 30 cities and their surrounding urban areas account for about two-thirds of Canada's population. As of Canada's census from 2011, the country is comprised of 33 Census Metropolitan Areas and 114 census agglomerations. Breaking these numbers down even further, there were a total of 1,137 municipalities throughout the country that were classified as cities, towns or villes, according to the census data.