Talk:List of the largest population centres in Canada

Ottawa rural band
"and then a rural band," Someone hasn't been to Ottawa in a long time.

Well, in 2001, it was still the case that there was a continuous "barrier" of non-densely-populated land between Ottawa and Kanata. I would not be surprised to discover that they have been merged into one "Urban Area" once the 2006 results are out. AshleyMorton 16:43, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Here, you can see the rural band from this:. AshleyMorton 16:51, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Copyright not followed
This article does not meet the conditions set forth in the copyright notice in the source material.

Rank
Is it just me or should Quebec City be ranked 9 with Winnipeg and Hamilton each moving up one?

The populations are listed as:

7 Quebec City, Quebec 612,925

8 Winnipeg, Manitoba 626,685

9 Hamilton, Ontario 618,820

-IToba 03:09, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Why is Whitehorse not on the list? On its page, it lists the population as high enough to be in the top 100.

Note that Kitchener, #10, is in fact the Region of Waterloo. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.70.138.128 (talk) 15:36, 20 October 2022 (UTC)


 * 18,122 according to the census on Whitehorse. Benkenobi18 23:12, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Where are Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington?
According to List of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in Canada, Tornto+Mississauga has 5,1 million residents, so Toronto here obviously doesn't include Mississauga. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.229.96.231 (talk) 07:12, 26 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Information is taken from Statistics Canada's 2006 Census. The intial part of the article explains that there are differences between all three. Benkenobi18 00:03, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Newmarket, Ontario
Newmarket, Ontario had a population of atleast 70 odd thousand in 2006, now up to 80,000, so I don't know why they're not listed on the page. On Newmarket's page their 2006 census population is listed as 74,295, I think they need to be included on the list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.250.130.79 (talk) 23:22, 7 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Newmarket is included as part of the Urban Area of Toronto - you may also notice a lack of Mississauga. AshleyMorton (talk) 10:31, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Physical size
Where would one find the physical size (square kilometres) of each of these urban areas? --Criticalthinker (talk) 06:28, 20 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Looks like someone has added a citation that link to StatsCan that shows the land area of each of these urban areas. Anyone want to add them? --Criticalthinker (talk) 03:57, 30 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I can after the 2011 census results are released in February. That way the populations can be updated and land areas added concurrently. Hwy43 (talk) 05:00, 30 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Sounds good to me. --Criticalthinker (talk) 01:05, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Toronto
Hamilton, Toronto,and Oshawa are now tethered together with the criteria set forth in the article. As such, Toronto, Hamilton and Oshawa form I contiguous urban area, and reaches a pop near 6 mil. Check google earth if you have any doubts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.171.231.18 (talk) 23:33, 17 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Urban areas/population centres do not cross census metropolitan area boundaries. Hamilton, Toronto and Oshawa are not "tethered together" until Statistics Canada decides to tether them together by merging them into one statistical unit — which, as of the 2011 census, they still haven't done. It's not our role to make up our own alternative statistics on Wikipedia; if StatsCan doesn't combine Hamilton, Toronto and Oshawa into a single urban area with a population cracking six mil, then neither do we. Bearcat (talk) 00:18, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

White Rock BC & Vancouver BC
Interesting that White Rock (entry #40), a city of under 20k, is listed as a 70k city. Even more curious is that it is listed separately from the Vancouver population, which I surmise to be the entire GVTA or Metro Vancouver area, and White Rock is a constituent member of both demographic areas. -Kain (talk) 11:00, 20 January 2012 (UTC)


 * It isn't listed as a city at all. This article lists "urban areas" as defined by Statistics Canada, not metropolitan areas or municipalities. This is the source table. Hwy43 (talk) 17:33, 20 January 2012 (UTC)


 * The "Vancouver urban area", as defined for the purposes of this article, is the figure listed by Statistics Canada as being the population of the series of dissemination blocks, emanating outward from downtown Vancouver, which meet the standard of having a population of at least 1,000 and a population density of at least 400/km2. This has nothing to do with the municipal boundaries of the city of Vancouver, or of the GVTA as a whole; in any given direction, the urban area ends as soon as it hits a dissemination block that falls below that "urban" standard, regardless of whether that corresponds to any sort of municipal or political or sociocultural boundary — and as long as the dissemination blocks stay above that standard, the urban area can blindly shoot right past a municipal or political or sociocultural boundary too. (Toronto's urban area, for example, rockets almost all the way up to Bradford along the Yonge Street corridor, but there's also another part of the city where it doesn't even cross to the other side of Steeles Avenue, because the non-Toronto side of the street in that particular area isn't developed at all.)


 * From looking at Google Maps, I can confirm that Vancouver and White Rock are listed as separate urban areas because there's a sizable band of non-urbanized land separating White Rock from the rest of Surrey. I'm betting you already knew that — but what it means is that Vancouver and White Rock are not demographically contiguous with each other, because there's a band of non-urban area between them. Similarly, Ladner and Tsawassen are part of Vancouver's urban area, but North Delta is not, because there's a massive patch of undeveloped land (park, I'm guessing?) right in the middle of it which almost certainly knocks its population density down below an urban standard. The fact that they're all part of a common government entity is irrelevant to the matter, because any city or metropolitan area can have several distinct "urban areas" (Sudbury has six, Ottawa has seven, the Greater Toronto Area has at least eight) if there are areas of non-urbanized land between the more urbanized ones. It's all about the demographic patterns, and has nothing to do with political boundaries. Bearcat (talk) 00:44, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

2011 census update and article move
Further to the "update" tag recently added to this article, Statistics Canada has abandoned the term "urban area" in favour of "population centre" with three sub-types. For a quick summary, see Census geographic units of Canada and the specific StatCan reference for more detail. This therefore begs the question, should this article be moved to List of the 100 largest population centres in Canada by population? Please provide concerns/comments before I be bold and move it. Hwy43 (talk) 06:05, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Be bold. Perhaps include previous years' counts in the table, if population centre and urban area are close enough in definition.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.65.0.107 (talk) 22:11, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Photo of Ottawa?
First time in Wikipedia, not at all sure this is the right place/ way to post a question/ comment. However, I'll give it a go and please let me know where this question should be properly posted.

Question: the photo of Ottawa, labelled Canada's Capital, looks not a smidge familiar. Could it possibly be Ottawa, Illinois or Kansas? Or if it is actually Ottawa, Ontario, perhaps a more familiar skyline would be helpful, with the Parliament buildings, Canal, National Gallery, Museum of Civilsation or other such recognizable landmarks?

Thanks! Michelle — Preceding unsigned comment added by MNCampbell (talk • contribs) 14:22, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * That photo doesn't really show anything identifiably or distinctively Ottawa, but it doesn't really show anything identifiably or distinctively not Ottawa either — it's just a generic "office buildings and apartments" shot that could have been taken from an apartment balcony anywhere in Centretown, or could just as easily be a mislabelling of a photo taken in almost any other city. I do agree that a shot of a more signature Ottawa scene would be more useful here than a generic urban streetscape. Bearcat (talk) 14:31, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

Lethbridge Population Wrong
I'm not actually sure how to change this part while providing a source.

The table says that 87,572 is the population as of 2016. However, Statistics Canada lists the following population from their 2016 census: 92,729 Skyturnrouge (talk) 03:41, 4 October 2019 (UTC)

Actually, it looks like a few others a wrong. Maybe a full update needs to be done. Again, I'm unsure as to how to do this (or how to aid this). Perhaps someone can either do it or give me guidance on how to do this? Here are my two problems: - how do you provide sources in a table when each row of the table needs different sources - this page is edit-locked Skyturnrouge (talk) 03:43, 4 October 2019 (UTC)


 * You're confusing the population of the city of Lethbridge (map) with the population of the population centre of Lethbridge (map). Cobblet (talk) 03:54, 4 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Maybe I'm not understanding this right, but the population of the city in the link you provided still says 92,729 Skyturnrouge (talk) 04:06, 4 October 2019 (UTC)


 * What Cobblet is saying is that the correct info for the population centre of Lethbridge is 87,572, per this. The figure you've stated is for the city of Lethbridge, which is listed at List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population. Mind  matrix  12:44, 4 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Skyturnrouge, please read what this article already says about why "population centre" is not the same thing as "city". The population centre of Lethbridge can include areas outside of the city of Lethbridge if their urban areas are contiguous with Lethbridge's, and it can exclude areas in the city of Lethbridge which are not densely populated enough to be classified as urban. "City" population and "population centre" population are not the same thing: the city population counts everybody who lives in the city limits regardless of whether they live in urban or rural parts of the city, while the population centre population only counts who lives in the urbanized part of the city while not counting people who live in less built up areas like Riverbottom Road. And the article already explains the difference. Bearcat (talk) 22:08, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

Just 100?
Why is only the 100 largest included? None of the other articles except for its sister take the largest 100 of something. If it were discussed in secondary literature it would be notable so am i missing something?Catchpoke (talk) 17:55, 8 May 2021 (UTC)
 * I think this is notable but the title seems off. List of the 100 largest cities and towns in Canada by area is another problematic article.Catchpoke (talk) 19:33, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

Requested move 14 May 2021

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: Not moved. (t &#183; c)  buidhe  22:47, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

List of the 100 largest population centres in Canada → List of population centres in Canada – I'm not sure that including "the 100 largest" is necessary for Canada. Though metropolitan areas are defined differently by the federal government, the name should match other countries' "cities" lists. Catchpoke (talk) 16:50, 14 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose This would change the scope of the article, as there are (as of 2011) 944 population centres in Canada. I don't think such a long list would make for a good article; we also already have lists at List of population centres in Alberta et al. 162 etc. (talk) 17:39, 14 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Then shorten this article and link to the smaller lists?Catchpoke (talk) 18:57, 14 May 2021 (UTC)
 * That's a possibility, although I suspect that the cutoff point won't be less arbitrary than the current "Top 100". 162 etc. (talk) 20:46, 14 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Maybe not include the list then and turn this into a "introductory" or disambiguation page?Catchpoke (talk) 21:42, 14 May 2021 (UTC)
 * That's already a thing, Lists of the 100 largest cities in Canada by population. 162 etc. (talk) 00:12, 15 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Of the total 4 links on Lists of the 100 largest cities in Canada by population, only 2 have "the 100 largest" in their titles and this article is one of them.Catchpoke (talk) 23:06, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Oppose as this is unnecessary. What number is more round for truncating what would be an extremely lengthy list where all remaining entries can be found on child list articles by province? This is a proposed fix to a something that isn’t broken. Hwy43 (talk) 05:36, 16 May 2021 (UTC)
 * This reasoning seems spurious to me and I am unsure if it is based on WP:IAR. My caveat is to use wp:common sense.  List of minerals recognized by the International Mineralogical Association has a number of child list articles as well.Catchpoke (talk) 02:59, 17 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Oppose per 162 etc. the sub national lists are sufficient for this.  Crouch, Swale  ( talk ) 10:30, 16 May 2021 (UTC)
 * They are sufficient yet this parent article isn't. The current title is limiting the scope of the article.Catchpoke (talk) 02:59, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Lists of the 100 largest cities in Canada by population which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 18:18, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

Vancouver counting Victoria?
Is the Vancouver population list counting Victoria as part of Vancouver? Because it being third on the list without counting Victoria as part of it would be clearly incorrect as it has practically half of Calgary's population. I feel emphasis on it including Victoria should be important. 2001:56A:78D1:9D00:2402:4C35:69D9:8E68 (talk) 19:36, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Victoria is its own separate population centre, and is not part of Vancouver's. If you don't like it that way, take it up with Statistics Canada — our role is to reflect their definitions and replicate their numbers, not to draw our own alternative boundaries and recalculate different population statistics. And if you're confused by the population figures, keep in mind the thing that's already been explained 50,000 times above: a population centre is not the same thing as a city. The population of the population centre of Vancouver is not the same thing as the population of the city of Vancouver, and the article already explains this — and if you still don't understand what it is, then have you never heard of Burnaby? New Westminister? Surrey? Richmond? Delta? Coquitlam? Bearcat (talk) 19:50, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 January 2022
The city Whitby, Ontario, Canada is not included in the list but has 128 thousand people in it. Oshawa it's neighbor city is however featured.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitby,_Ontario 2607:FEA8:3260:4050:B194:3127:39F9:930 (talk) 13:07, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: See above explanations. This is not a list of cities. Cannolis (talk) 19:19, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Seriously, folks, read the damn article, because the article already explains what a population centre is and isn't. Whitby isn't its own population centre at all; it is its own municipality, yes, but that's not what a population centre is. As population centres go, Whitby is part of the population centre of, guess what: Oshawa. Bearcat (talk) 22:47, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 June 2022
The city of Terrebonne(QC) is not in this list. I am quoting Wikipedia here: "According to the 2011 Canadian Census Terrebonne has a population of 111,575, making it Montreal's fourth largest suburb." 184.162.6.146 (talk) 00:04, 18 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: It appears it is part of the Montreal population center. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 01:15, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

Metropolitan cites on Canada
What is the population in Montreal? In 2021 The population of Montreal was 1,762,949 people in Canada in 2022 population followed with about 4.4 million people after LA after SF and after San Jose and after Houston Chicago but Canada’s largest metropolitan city in Toronto in Ontario. In2022 Over 6.6 Million people were living in the Toronto metropolitan area after Vancouver. Example: The population of Montreal was 1,762,949 people in Canada. 69.181.90.205 (talk) 00:33, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
 * This list is specifically about population centres, not metropolitan areas. Generally, this means a contiguous urban area which may exclude parts of a metropolitan area or include parts of another area. Mind  matrix  18:57, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

Cambridge and Waterloo
what happened to Cambridge and Waterloo? 184.151.37.119 (talk) 21:40, 20 March 2023 (UTC)


 * They are both part of the Kitchener population centre. Mind  matrix  23:55, 20 March 2023 (UTC)

Where is Red Deer, Alberta?
Red Deer is missing. It has a population of about 109,489 within an area of 104.3 square kilometers according to https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/red-deer-population.

It is also above Lethbridge as the THIRD largest population centre and city in Alberta.

It should be right above White Rock, British Columbia, at 30th place. I am a resident of Red Deer and our city has been well known to be over the 100,000 population mark for the past several years. Given the data above, Red Deer's population density is about 1049.75 kilometers squared for its 2023 estimate.

As stated in this ARTICLE MADE BY WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_population_centres_in_Alberta, Red Deer is considered a population centre. That is my argument.

Coordinates of the city if you would like to check it out: 52.2690° N, 113.8115° W Ashdon140 (talk) 17:50, 30 June 2023 (UTC)


 * You're confusing 'population centre' and 'municipality'. Red Deer is on this list at position 35 with a population of 99,846, per Population and dwelling counts: Canada and population centres at Statistics Canada. The municipality is listed at List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population with a population of 100,844. These articles use Statistics Canada 2021 census results, not third-party estimates. Mind  matrix  18:44, 30 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Just to add to what Mindmatrix said, all of which was correct, the article already explains the difference between a population centre and a municipality. ("A population centre does not necessarily correspond to the boundaries of a municipality or of a census division. For example, a less densely populated area within a city's municipal boundaries may not be included as part of its population centre, while areas outside the city limits that directly continue a city's urban core population may be included.") Which just proves that you didn't actually read the article, as if your claim that Red Deer was missing from it, even though it isn't missing at all, hadn't already proven that. Bearcat (talk) 18:55, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

Ottawa's population centres don't accurately reflect the layout of the city
I just suggested an edit but realized that this page is using a unique definition to define population centres, and identifies a number of Ottawa neighborhoods as distinct population centres. This may need to be updated as many of the listed centres have merged with larger neighborhoods in the last few decades to become continuous areas. For example, Manotick, Osgoode, Barrhaven and Riverside South are now a continuous centre. It also seems that some of the deciding factors in what constitutes a population centre may not be applied consistently 74.12.10.79 (talk) 03:17, 21 August 2023 (UTC)


 * Take it up with Statistics Canada. That is the only way to change the delineations. We cannot. Hwy43 (talk) 03:56, 21 August 2023 (UTC)


 * As noted, it's not us using a "unique" definition of population centres. Statistics Canada did that, and we just replicate their numbers. This article already explains that a population centre is not the same thing as a municipality: a population centre is defined by continuous urban density, so if two urban-density neighbourhoods are divided by enough non-urban wilderness, then they're two separate population centres even if they're within the same municipality as each other, because they're not part of the same continuous block of urban density. Again, not because we said so, but because Statistics Canada said so, and again, the article already explains this in thorough, lucid detail. So you "this article got stuff wrong" people really need to start reading the damn article. Bearcat (talk) 15:58, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Ottawa-Gatineau population wrong
On the Wikipedia page for Ottawa-Gatineau it lists the population correctly at 1.48 million. The population listed here is only for the city of Ottawa. Ranking should be 4th. 2607:FEA8:BB5F:A116:9469:1033:C51A:3D94 (talk) 21:31, 21 August 2023 (UTC)
 * The National Capital Region (Canada) (ie - Ottawa-Gatineau) correctly lists the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) population as 1,488,307. This article correctly lists the Ottawa-Gatineau population centre population as 1,068,821. See Population and dwelling counts: Canada and population centres at Statistics Canada for details. Mind  matrix  01:26, 22 August 2023 (UTC)


 * The population centre is not the same thing as the metropolitan area. Please read what the article already says about the definition of a population centre. Bearcat (talk) 15:59, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Milton population density
Milton does not rank 2nd in population density… the actual figure should be around 365. 142.198.219.235 (talk) 01:27, 10 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Do you have a source for this. According to Statistics Canada, this population centre has a population density of 2755.9 (see this table at StatsCan). Mind  matrix  12:43, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Where is Laval and Lévis?
Laval with around 400k population and Lévis with about 150k population isn't on the list. Yet you got cities like Châteauguay with 75k population on the list. Charlolel (talk) 04:15, 18 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Neither is a population centre. For example, Laval is included with Montreal. See this table at Statistics Canada for a list of population centres. Mind  matrix  12:03, 18 July 2024 (UTC)