Some people mistakenly consider Toronto the capital of Canada. The error is quite permissible - in terms of the population of Toronto it exceeds the capital, the city of Ottawa, by three times, being the largest city in the country. Not surprisingly, many people would like to know more about this amazing place.
City location and status
First, let's figure out where Toronto is. The city is located in Ontario - the southernmost province of Canada. Nearby is a lake, also called Ontario, which many North American writers have sung in their books. Despite the fact that the city is located at the same latitude as Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, the climate is more severe. Toronto is surrounded by numerous lakes - in addition to Ontario, there is Michigan, Huron, Erie and others. Yes, and the Atlantic Ocean is just around the corner. Because of this, the humidity is quite high, there is a lot of rainfall. However, the summer is still hot - the average July temperature is 22 degrees Celsius, but there are also hot days - up to 40 degrees. Winter is pretty harsh. In January, the average temperature is about -7 degrees, but it can get colder even up to -33 - it is very difficult to tolerate such frost with high humidity.
The city, although not the capital of Canada, is the administrative center of the province. No wonder - it is not for nothing that they call it the economic engine of the country. The modern city is one of the most influential cities in the country and even the world. In addition, the area of the city of Toronto exceeds 630 square kilometers - a very considerable size.
Located in the time zone -5. Therefore, the time difference between Moscow and Toronto is 8 hours. When people are already returning from work in Moscow, in this Canadian city the working day is just beginning.
History of the city
In the seventeenth century, when the city was not yet in sight, the name Toronto belonged to a vast area. It is believed that the term itself came from the language of the Mohawk tribe and means "the place where the trees grow from the water."
At the end of the eighteenth century, the British bought this land from the French - about 1000 square kilometers - and founded here the city, called York. But only twenty years later, in 1813, during the Anglo-American war, the city was almost completely destroyed. When it was rebuilt, they decided to rename it by the name of the area. And so the future metropolis of Toronto appeared.
The population of Toronto grew quite slowly, and it would hardly have become any significant if not for the problems in Quebec. Some hotheads demanded that the province gain independence from Canada. It could have come to a real civil war, so many people fled from there to the nearest city - it turned out to be Toronto. A sharp jump in population along with increased capital (many Quebec residents did not run with empty pockets at all) allowed Toronto to break out into the leaders and gradually consolidate its success.
How many people live in Toronto?
As already mentioned, Toronto's population is the largest city in Canada. According to the 2016 census, 2,731,571 people lived here. Quite a lot, given that even the capital - Ottawa - boasts a total of 934 thousand inhabitants.
A large population and a relatively small area led to the fact that the population density is very significant - there are 4,334 people per square kilometer.
Also, many people are interested in what language is spoken in Toronto. Mostly in English, although French is the main official language of Canada. But this is easy to explain - this area, as mentioned above, was bought from the French by the British. And it was populated precisely by people from Foggy Albion. Therefore, there is nothing strange that most of the population speaks the language of their ancestors here - English.
However, every year the proportion of residents who prefer English is rapidly declining. It's all about a complex ethnic composition. This is worth telling in more detail.
Ethnic composition
If we talk about the population of Toronto, then it is worth noting its heterogeneity. Back in the mid-1950s, the city was exclusively English - all migrants who arrived here had to speak it in order to deal with local residents.
But over the next half century, much has changed. For example, today every tenth resident of Toronto comes from India. About 8% of the population are Chinese. Almost 6% of Italians and Filipinos. The largest Muslim community in Canada is also located here - about 425 thousand people - almost one sixth!
Moreover, many migrants prefer to live on benefits, not going to learn the language. In recent years, this has increasingly become the cause of serious conflicts between visitors and indigenous people.
Major Attractions
Having learned where Toronto is and how many people live here, many readers will be interested to read about the sights - there are enough of them!
For example, CN Tower is a television tower 553 meters high, with a revolving restaurant and high-speed elevators at the top.
The Casa Loma mansion, built at the beginning of the 20th century in the Neo-Gothic style, is very beautiful - a real castle in a modern city!
PATH is a real underground city. To save surface area, many skyscrapers have several underground floors, where restaurants, shops, even fountains and small parks are located. Underground buildings are interconnected by underground passages, the total length of which exceeds 30 kilometers. Any tourist will really be interested in visiting here.
Conclusion
This concludes the article. You learned a lot of interesting things about the largest city in Canada. Now you know about the population of Toronto, the history of this city, as well as the most attractive tourist attractions.