List of largest Canadian cities by census

This is a list of the largest cities in Canada by census starting with the 1871 census of Canada, the first national census.

In the earlier census, only communities that were incorporated as cities at the time of each census are presented. Therefore, the list does not include any incorporated towns (T) that may have been larger than any incorporated cities at each census.

As various provinces take divergent approaches toward municipal governance, population figures that confined strictly to formal municipal boundary became less meaningful data. In recognition of the close economic or geographical relationship and community of interest satellite communities in proximity to cities but may be outside the formal boundaries of the incorporated municipal entities, reporting of data for metropolitan areas started to appear in the 1941 census, and were formalized as statistics for census metropolitan areas (CMA) in the 1951 census.

1871 Rank City Province Population Notes 1 Montreal Quebec 107,225 Ranked second largest city in 2021. 2 Quebec City Quebec 59,699 Ranked twelfth largest city in 2021. 3 Toronto Ontario 56,092 Ranked largest city in 2021. 4 Halifax Nova Scotia 29,582 Ranked fourteenth largest municipality in 2021. 5 Saint John New Brunswick 28,805 Saint John was incorporated in 1785 to become Canada's first incorporated city. Ranked eighty-fourth largest city in 2021. 6 Hamilton Ontario 26,716 Ranked tenth largest city in 2021. 7 Ottawa Ontario 21,545 Ranked fourth largest city in 2021. 8 London Ontario 15,826 Ranked fifteenth largest city in 2021. 9 Portland New Brunswick 12,520 Portland was a city until 1889, when it amalgamated with Saint John. 10 Kingston Ontario 12,407 Ranked forty-fifth largest city in 2021.

1881 Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 140,747 2 Toronto Ontario 86,415 3 Quebec City Quebec 62,446 4 Halifax Nova Scotia 36,054 5 Hamilton Ontario 35,961 6 Ottawa Ontario 27,412 7 Saint John New Brunswick 26,127 8 London Ontario 19,746 9 Portland New Brunswick 15,226 10 Kingston Ontario 14,091

1891 Winnipeg, Manitoba, becomes the first city in Western Canada to appear on the Top 10 list, cutting The Maritimes from three spots on the liston both (all) of the previous censusesto two.

Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 216,650 2 Toronto Ontario 181,220 3 Quebec City Quebec 63,090 4 Hamilton Ontario 48,980 5 Ottawa Ontario 44,154 6 Saint John New Brunswick 39,179 7 Halifax Nova Scotia 38,556 8 London Ontario 31,977 9 Winnipeg Manitoba 25,642 10 Kingston Ontario 19,264

1901 Vancouver, British Columbia, becomes the second city in Western Canada to appear on the Top 10 list, cutting Ontario from five spots on the liston all three previous censusesto four.

Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 267,730 2 Toronto Ontario 208,040 3 Quebec City Quebec 68,840 4 Ottawa Ontario 59,928 5 Hamilton Ontario 52,634 6 Winnipeg Manitoba 42,340 7 Halifax Nova Scotia 40,832 8 Saint John New Brunswick 40,711 9 London Ontario 37,981 10 Vancouver British Columbia 26,133

1911 Calgary, Alberta, becomes the third city in Western Canada to appear on the Top 10 list, cutting The Maritimes from two spots on the liston the two most recent previous censusesto one.

Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 470,480 2 Toronto Ontario 378,538 3 Winnipeg Manitoba 136,035 4 Vancouver British Columbia 100,401 5 Ottawa Ontario 87,701 6 Hamilton Ontario 81,969 7 Quebec City Quebec 78,710 8 Halifax Nova Scotia 46,619 9 London Ontario 46,300 10 Calgary Alberta 43,704

1921 Edmonton, Alberta, becomes the fourth city in Western Canada to appear on the Top 10 list, removing all cities in The Maritimes from the list for the first time as of this sixth national census; The Maritimes have never again placed a city in the Top 10 list. Western Canada's four most populous citiesVancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeghave remained in the Top 10 since 1921, joined briefly in 2001 (only) by Surrey, British Columbia.

Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 618,506 2 Toronto Ontario 521,893 3 Winnipeg Manitoba 179,087 4 Vancouver British Columbia 163,220 5 Hamilton Ontario 114,151 6 Ottawa Ontario 107,843 7 Quebec City Quebec 95,193 8 Calgary Alberta 63,305 9 London Ontario 60,959 10 Edmonton Alberta 58,821

1931 Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 818,517 2 Toronto Ontario 631,207 3 Vancouver British Columbia 246,593 4 Winnipeg Manitoba 218,784 5 Hamilton Ontario 155,547 6 Quebec City Quebec 130,594 7 Ottawa Ontario 126,872 8 Calgary Alberta 83,761 9 Edmonton Alberta 79,197 10 London Ontario 71,148

1941 The 1941 census introduced the concept of "Greater Cities", the precursor of census metropolitan areas (CMA) that would be formally implemented in the next census. Greater cities were defined as cities having well-defined satellite communities which were outside the boundaries of the formal border of the incorporated municipal entities, but were in close economic or geographical relationship" to the city.

The 1941 census listed twelves such metropolitan areas and provide population statistics for them: Halifax (NS), Saint John (NB), Montréal, Québec (QC), Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Toronto, Windsor (ON), Winnipeg (MB), Vancouver, and Victoria (BC); and specifically noted that Calgary and Edmonton as large cities not organized in this manner. The 1941 census did not formally assign population ranking to the greater cities. (Only the 5th, 6th, and 7th ranked cities would have been affected.) The two set of population figures enable more meaningfully comparable comparison between the major population centres without strict conformance to the municipal borders.

RankCityProvincePopulation Incorporatedcity Greatercity 1 Montreal Quebec 903,007 1,139,921 2 Toronto Ontario 667,567 990,491 3 Vancouver British Columbia 275,353 351,491 4 Winnipeg Manitoba 221,960 290,540 5 Hamilton Ontario 166,337 176,110 6 Ottawa Ontario 154,951 215,022 7 Quebec City Quebec 150,757 200,814 8 Windsor Ontario 105,311 121,112 9 Edmonton Alberta 93,817 93,817 10 Calgary Alberta 88,904 88,904

1951 Montreal becomes the first city to hit over 1 million in population. RankCityProvincePopulation Incorporatedcity 1 Montreal Quebec 1,021,520 1,395,400 2 Toronto Ontario 675,754 1,117,470 3 Vancouver British Columbia 344,843 530,728 4 Winnipeg Manitoba 235,710 354,069 5 Hamilton Ontario 208,321 259,685 6 Ottawa Ontario 202,045 281,908 7 Quebec City Quebec 164,016 274,827 8 Edmonton Alberta 159,631 173,075 9 Calgary Alberta 129,060 139,105 10 Windsor Ontario 120,040 157,672

1956 RankCityProvincePopulation Incorporatedcity 1 Montreal Quebec 1,109,439 1,620,758 2 Toronto Ontario 667,706 1,358,028 3 Vancouver British Columbia 364,844665,017 4 Winnipeg Manitoba 255,093 409,121 5 Hamilton Ontario 239,625 327,831 6 Edmonton Alberta 226,002 251,004 7 Ottawa Ontario 222,129 345,460 8 Calgary Alberta 181,780 200,449 9 Quebec City Quebec 170,703 309,959 10 Windsor Ontario 121,980 185,865

1961 Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 1,191,062 2 Toronto Ontario 672,407 3 Vancouver British Columbia 384,522 4 Edmonton Alberta 281,022 5 Hamilton Ontario 273,991 6 Ottawa Ontario 268,206 7 Winnipeg Manitoba 265,429 8 Calgary Alberta 249,632 9 Quebec City Quebec 171,979 10 London Ontario 169,569

1966 Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 1,225,255 2 Toronto Ontario 664,584 3 Vancouver British Columbia 410,375 4 Edmonton Alberta 376,925 5 Calgary Alberta 330,575 6 Hamilton Ontario 298,121 7 Ottawa Ontario 290,741 8 Winnipeg Manitoba 257,005 9 Laval Quebec 196,088 10 London Ontario 194,416

1971 Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 1,214,351 2 Toronto Ontario 712,786 3 Edmonton Alberta 438,152 4 Vancouver British Columbia 426,256 5 Calgary Alberta 403,319 6 Hamilton Ontario 309,173 7 Ottawa Ontario 302,241 8 Winnipeg Manitoba 246,246 9 Laval Quebec 228,010 10 London Ontario 223,222

1976 Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 1,080,546 2 Toronto Ontario 633,318 3 Winnipeg Manitoba 560,874 4 Calgary Alberta 469,917 5 Edmonton Alberta 461,361 6 Vancouver British Columbia 410,188 7 Hamilton Ontario 312,003 8 Ottawa Ontario 304,462 9 Mississauga Ontario 250,017 10 Laval Quebec 246,243

1981 After holding two spots on the Top 10 list in all 14 previous censuses, Quebec is reduced to one city on the list. It will briefly return to two positions, in 1996 (19th census) and 2006 (20th census).

Through the 1970s, while a number of Canadian cities suffered population losses, the three Canadian Prairies cities on the Top 10 listCalgary, Edmonton and Winnipegsaw significant growth: the two Alberta cities primarily through consistent net migration, with Winnipeg primarily boosted by amalgamation of its surrounding municipalities prior to the 1976 census.

Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 980,354 2 Toronto Ontario 599,217 3 Calgary Alberta 592,743 4 Winnipeg Manitoba 564,473 5 North York Ontario 559,521 6 Edmonton Alberta 532,246 7 Vancouver British Columbia 414,281 8 Mississauga Ontario 315,056 9 Hamilton Ontario 306,434 10 Ottawa Ontario 295,033

1986 Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 1,015,420 2 Calgary Alberta 636,104 3 Toronto Ontario 612,289 4 Winnipeg Manitoba 594,551 5 Edmonton Alberta 573,982 6 North York Ontario 556,297 7 Scarborough Ontario 484,676 8 Vancouver British Columbia 431,147 9 Mississauga Ontario 374,005 10 Hamilton Ontario 306,728

1991 Rank City Province Population 1 Montreal Quebec 1,017,666 2 Calgary Alberta 710,677 3 Toronto Ontario 635,395 4 Winnipeg Manitoba 616,790 5 Edmonton Alberta 616,741 6 North York Ontario 563,270 7 Scarborough Ontario 524,598 8 Vancouver British Columbia 471,844 9 Mississauga Ontario 463,388 10 Hamilton Ontario 318,499

1996 Rank City Province Population 1996 Census 1 Montreal Quebec 1,016,376 2 Calgary Alberta 768,082 3 Toronto Ontario 653,734 4 Winnipeg Manitoba 618,477 5 Edmonton Alberta 616,306 6 North York Ontario 589,653 7 Scarborough Ontario 558,960 8 Mississauga Ontario 544,382 9 Vancouver British Columbia 514,008 10 Laval Quebec 330,393

2001 Numerous amalgamations took place in Ontario during the 1990s and 2000s that affected city population figures.

A significant change is that, after holding the position of largest city in Canada on all 19 previous censuses, covering the first 129 years of the nation of Canada, Montreal drops to second place on the list, displaced by Toronto. These two cities have maintained the same top two positions on all subsequent censuses.

Rank City Province Population 1 Toronto Ontario 2,481,494 2 Montreal Quebec 1,039,534 3 Calgary Alberta 879,003 4 Ottawa Ontario 774,072 5 Edmonton Alberta 666,104 6 Winnipeg Manitoba 619,544 7 Mississauga Ontario 612,000 8 Vancouver British Columbia 545,671 9 Hamilton Ontario 490,268 10 Surrey British Columbia 347,825

2006 A wave of amalgamations took place in Quebec since the previous census, affecting city population figures. In particular, in 2002, both Montreal and Quebec City combined with a number of smaller surrounding cities, though some later chose to leave the amalgamations.

Rank City Province Population 1 Toronto Ontario 2,503,281 2 Montreal Quebec 1,620,693 3 Calgary Alberta 988,193 4 Ottawa Ontario 812,129 5 Edmonton Alberta 730,372 6 Mississauga Ontario 668,549 7 Winnipeg Manitoba 633,451 8 Vancouver British Columbia 578,041 9 Hamilton Ontario 504,559 10 Quebec City Quebec 491,452

2011

Rank City Province Population 1 Toronto Ontario 2,615,060 2 Montreal Quebec 1,649,519 3 Calgary Alberta 1,096,833 4 Ottawa Ontario 883,391 5 Edmonton Alberta 821,201 6 Mississauga Ontario 713,443 7 Winnipeg Manitoba 663,617 8 Vancouver British Columbia 603,502 9 Brampton Ontario 523,911 10 Hamilton Ontario 519,949

2016