Montreal^{[lower-alpha 1]} is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the ninth-largest in North America. Founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary",^[19] it is now named after Mount Royal,^[20] the triple-peaked mountain around which the early settlement was built.^[21] The city is centred on the Island of Montreal^[22]^[23] and a few, much smaller, peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. The city is 196 km (122 mi) east of the national capital, Ottawa, and 258 km (160 mi) southwest of the provincial capital, Quebec City.

Quick Facts Montréal (French), Country ...

Montreal Montréal (French)
City
Ville de Montréal
Downtown Montreal skyline Old Montreal Notre-Dame Basilica Old Port of Montreal Saint Joseph's Oratory Olympic Stadium
Flag Coat of arms Logo
Nicknames: "MTL", "The 514", "The City of Festivals", "The City of Saints", "The City of a Hundred Steeples", "Sin City", "La Métropole"^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]
Motto: Concordia Salus ("well-being through harmony")
Interactive map of Montreal
Montreal Location within Canada Show map of Canada Montreal Location within Quebec Show map of Quebec
Coordinates: 45°30′32″N 73°33′15″W^[5]
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Montreal
Urban agglomeration	Montreal
Founded	May 17, 1642
Incorporated	1832
Constituted	January 1, 2002
Named for	Mount Royal
Boroughs	List Ahuntsic-Cartierville Anjou Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève LaSalle Lachine Le Plateau-Mont-Royal Le Sud-Ouest Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Montréal-Nord Outremont Pierrefonds-Roxboro Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie Saint-Laurent Saint-Léonard Verdun Ville-Marie Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension
Government ^[7]
• Type	Montreal City Council
• Mayor	Valérie Plante
• Federal riding	List Ahuntsic-Cartierville Bourassa Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle Hochelaga Honoré-Mercier La Pointe-de-l'Île Lac-Saint-Louis LaSalle—Émard—Verdun Laurier—Sainte-Marie Mount Royal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount Outremont Papineau Pierrefonds—Dollard Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie Saint-Laurent Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Sœurs
• Provincial riding	List Acadie Anjou–Louis-Riel Bourassa-Sauvé Camille-Laurin Crémazie D'Arcy-McGee Gouin Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Jeanne-Mance–Viger LaFontaine Laurier-Dorion Marguerite-Bourgeoys Marquette Mercier Mont-Royal Nelligan Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Outremont Pointe-aux-Trembles Robert-Baldwin Rosemont Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne Saint-Laurent Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques Tétreaultville Verdun Viau Westmount–Saint-Louis
• MPs	List of MPs Sameer Zuberi Mario Beaulieu Alexandre Boulerice Soraya Martinez Ferrada Anju Dhillon Patricia Lattanzio Emmanuel Dubourg Marc Garneau Anthony Housefather Mélanie Joly Emmanuella Lambropoulos David Lametti Steven Guilbeault Marc Miller Pablo Rodríguez Francis Scarpaleggia Justin Trudeau Rachel Bendayan
Area ^[8]^[9]
• City	431.50 km² (166.60 sq mi)
• Land	365.13 km² (140.98 sq mi)
• Urban ^[10]	1,293.99 km² (499.61 sq mi)
• Metro ^[11]	4,604.26 km² (1,777.71 sq mi)
Highest elevation	233 m (764 ft)
Lowest elevation	6 m (20 ft)
Population (2021)^[9]
• City	1,762,949 (2nd)
• Density	4,828.3/km² (12,505/sq mi)
• Metro ^[12]	4,291,732 (2nd)
• Metro density	919/km² (2,380/sq mi)
Demonyms	Montrealer Montréalais(e)^[13]
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (EDT)
Postal codes	H H1A, H1C-H3N, H3S-H3W, H4A-H4T, H4Z-H5B, H8R-H8Z, H9C-H9E, H9H, H9K
Area codes	514, 438 and 263
Police	SPVM
GDP (Montreal CMA)	CA$228.71 billion (2020)^[14]
GDP per capita (Montreal CMA)	CA$48,289 (2022)^[15]
Website	montreal.ca/en/

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As of 2021,^[update] the city had a population of 1,762,949,^[24] and a metropolitan population of 4,291,732,^[25] making it the second-largest metropolitan area in Canada. French is the city's official language.^[26]^[27] In 2021, 85.7% of the population of the city of Montreal considered themselves fluent in French while 90.2% could speak it in the metropolitan area.^[28]^[29] Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 58.5% of the population able to speak both French and English.^[30]

Historically the commercial capital of Canada, Montreal was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s.^[31] It remains an important centre of art, culture, literature, film and television, music, commerce, aerospace, transport, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, tourism, food, fashion, video game development, and world affairs. Montreal is the location of the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization, and was named a UNESCO City of Design in 2006.^[32]^[33] In 2017, Montreal was ranked the 12th-most livable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its annual Global Liveability Ranking,^[34] although its ranking slipped to 40th in the 2021 index, primarily due to stress on the healthcare system from the COVID-19 pandemic.^[35] It is regularly ranked as one of the ten best cities in the world to be a university student in the QS World University Rankings.^[36] In 2018, Montreal was ranked as a global city.^[37]

Montreal has hosted numerous important international events, including the 1967 International and Universal Exposition, and is the only Canadian city to have hosted the Summer Olympics, having done so in 1976.^[38]^[39] The city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One;^[40] the Montreal International Jazz Festival,^[41] the largest jazz festival in the world;^[42] the Just for Laughs festival, the largest comedy festival in the world;^[43] and Les Francos de Montréal, the largest French-language music festival in the world.^[44] In sports, it is home to multiple professional teams, most notably the Canadiens of the National Hockey League, who have won the Stanley Cup a record 24 times.