Greater Montreal

For other metropolitan Montreal topics, see Montreal Metro (disambiguation).

Greater Montreal (French: Grand Montréal, [ɡʁɑ̃ mɔ̃ʁeal]) is the most populous metropolitan area in Quebec and the second most populous in Canada after Greater Toronto. In 2015, Statistics Canada identified Montreal's Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) as 4,258.31 square kilometres (1,644.14 sq mi) with a population of 4,027,100,^[5] almost half that of the province.

Greater Montreal Grand Montréal (French)
Metropolitan area
Interactive Map of Greater Montreal[1]   City of Montreal / Ville de Montréal   City of Laval / Ville de Laval   City of Longueuil / Ville de Longueuil   Municipalities in both Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC)   Municipalities in Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) but not in Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC)   Municipalities not in Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) but in Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC)
Country	Canada
Province	Québec
Area [2]
• Total	4,739.04 km2 (1,829.75 sq mi)
• Land	4,258.31 km2 (1,644.14 sq mi)
Population  (2024)[3]
• Total	4,342,000
• Density	1,007.85/km2 (2,610.3/sq mi)
GDP
• Montreal CMA	CA$228.7 billion (2020)[4]
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code prefixes	H, J
Area code(s)	438, 450, 514, 579
Greater Montreal shown in light blue, with the City of Montreal proper in dark blue.

A smaller area of 3,838 square kilometres (1,482 sq mi) is governed by the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC; French: Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, CMM). This level of government is headed by a president (currently Montreal mayor Valérie Plante).

The inner ring is composed of densely populated municipalities located in close proximity to Downtown Montreal. It includes the entire Island of Montreal, Laval, and the Urban Agglomeration of Longueuil. Due to their proximity to Montreal's downtown core, some additional suburbs on the South Shore (Brossard, Saint-Lambert, and Boucherville) are usually included in the inner ring, despite their location on the mainland.

The outer ring is composed of low-density municipalities located on the fringe of Metropolitan Montreal. Most of these cities and towns are semi-rural. Specifically, the term off-island suburbs refers to those suburbs that are located on the North Shore of the Mille-Îles River, those on the South Shore that were never included in the megacity of Longueuil, and those on the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Peninsula.

Largest cities

The largest cities in Greater Montreal^[6]

Rank	City	Region	Population (2016)	Land Area		Population Density
				km2	mi2	/km2	/mi2
1	Montreal	Montreal	1,704,694	365.13	140.98	4,662.1	12,075
2	Laval	Laval	422,993	247.09	95.40	1,710.9	4,431
3	Longueuil	Montérégie	239,700	115.59	44.63	2,070.9	5,364
4	Terrebonne	Lanaudière	111,575	154.12	59.51	723.9	1,875
5	Brossard	Montérégie	85,721	45.20	17.45	1,895.4	4,909
6	Repentigny	Lanaudière	84,285	61.79	23.86	1,376.5	3,565
7	Saint-Jérôme	Laurentides	74,346	90.52	34.95	822.1	2,129
8	Blainville	Laurentides	56,863	55.10	21.27	1,030.9	2,670
9	Mirabel	Laurentides	50,513	485.07	187.29	104.1	270
10	Dollard-des-Ormeaux	Montreal	48,899	14.97	5.78	3,266.1	8,459

Cities and towns

• 
  Montreal
• 
  Laval
• 
  Longueuil

Logo of the Montreal Metropolitan Community

Greater Montreal Territorial Evolution

Municipalities in the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC)

Area	Regional county municipality	Municipality	In CMA	In MMC
Urban agglomeration of Montreal		Baie-d'Urfé	Y	Y
		Beaconsfield	Y	Y
		Côte Saint-Luc	Y	Y
		Dollard-des-Ormeaux	Y	Y
		Dorval	Y	Y
		Hampstead	Y	Y
		Kirkland	Y	Y
		L'Île-Dorval	Y	Y
		Montreal[a 1]	Y	Y
		Montréal-Est	Y	Y
		Montreal West	Y	Y
		Mount Royal	Y	Y
		Pointe-Claire	Y	Y
		Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue	Y	Y
		Senneville	Y	Y
		Westmount	Y	Y
Laval			Y	Y
Urban agglomeration of Longueuil		Boucherville	Y	Y
		Brossard	Y	Y
		Longueuil[a 2]	Y	Y
		Saint-Lambert	Y	Y
		Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville	Y	Y
Laurentides	Deux-Montagnes[b 1]	Deux-Montagnes	Y	Y
		Oka	Y	Y
		Pointe-Calumet	Y	Y
		Saint-Eustache	Y	Y
		Saint-Joseph-du-Lac	Y	Y
		Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac	Y	Y
		Saint-Placide	Y	N
	Thérèse-De Blainville	Blainville	Y	Y
		Bois-des-Filion	Y	Y
		Boisbriand	Y	Y
		Lorraine	Y	Y
		Rosemère	Y	Y
		Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines	Y	Y
		Sainte-Thérèse	Y	Y
	[d 1]	Mirabel	Y	Y
	Argenteuil	Gore	Y	N
	La Rivière-du-Nord	Saint-Colomban	Y	N
		Saint-Jérôme[c 1]	Y	N
Lanaudière	L'Assomption[b 1]	Charlemagne	Y	Y
		L'Assomption	Y	Y
		L'Épiphanie	Y	N
		Repentigny	Y	Y
		Saint-Sulpice	Y	Y
	Les Moulins	Mascouche	Y	Y
		Terrebonne	Y	Y
	Joliette	Joliette Crabtree Notre-Dame-des-Prairies Saint-Charles-Borromée	Y
	D'Autray	Lavaltrie	Y	N
	Montcalm[b 2]	Saint-Lin–Laurentides	Y	N
Montérégie	Beauharnois-Salaberry[b 1]	Beauharnois	Y	Y
	La Vallée-du-Richelieu[b 1]	Beloeil	Y	Y
		Carignan	Y	Y
		Chambly	Y	Y
		McMasterville	Y	Y
		Mont-Saint-Hilaire	Y	Y
		Otterburn Park	Y	Y
		Saint-Basile-le-Grand	Y	Y
		Saint-Jean-Baptiste	N	Y
		Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil	Y	Y
	Marguerite-D'Youville	Calixa-Lavallée	N	Y
		Contrecœur	N	Y
		Saint-Amable	Y	Y
		Sainte-Julie	Y	Y
		Varennes	Y	Y
		Verchères	Y	Y
	Roussillon	Candiac	Y	Y
		Châteauguay	Y	Y
		Delson	Y	Y
		La Prairie	Y	Y
		Léry	Y	Y
		Mercier	Y	Y
		Sainte-Catherine	Y	Y
		Saint-Constant	Y	Y
		Saint-Isidore	Y	Y
		Saint-Mathieu	Y	Y
		Saint-Philippe	Y	Y
	Rouville[b 1]	Richelieu	Y	Y
		Saint-Mathias-sur-Richelieu	Y	Y
	Vaudreuil-Soulanges[b 1]	Coteau-du-Lac	Y	N
		Hudson	Y	Y
		Les Cèdres	Y	Y
		Les Coteaux	Y	N
		L'Île-Cadieux	Y	Y
		L'Île-Perrot	Y	Y
		Notre-Dame-de-l'Île-Perrot	Y	Y
		Pincourt	Y	Y
		Pointe-des-Cascades	Y	Y
		Saint-Lazare	Y	Y
		Saint-Zotique	Y	N
		Terrasse-Vaudreuil	Y	Y
		Vaudreuil-Dorion	Y	Y
		Vaudreuil-sur-le-Lac	Y	Y
	Le Haut-Richelieu[b 2]	Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu	Y	N

1. subdivided into nineteen boroughs
2. subdivided into the boroughs of Le Vieux-Longueuil, Saint-Hubert and Greenfield Park.

Only a portion of the municipalities and MRC's located in geographical entities highlighted in light gray are part of the CMM/CMA.
There are 82 municipalities that are part of the MMC and 91 municipalities that are part of the CMA.
There are 79 municipalities that overlap between the two, with 3 municipalities being part of the MMC but not the CMA, and 12 municipalities being part of the CMA but not the MMC.^[7][8]
Kanesatake and Kahnawake are not included in the previous counts.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Montreal

Historical populations

Year	Pop.	±%
1871	174,090	—
1881	223,512	+28.4%
1891	308,169	+37.9%
1901	393,665	+27.7%
1911	594,812	+51.1%
1921	774,330	+30.2%
1931	1,064,448	+37.5%
1941	1,192,235	+12.0%
1951	1,539,308	+29.1%
1956	1,745,001	+13.4%
1961	2,110,679	+21.0%
1966	2,570,985	+21.8%
1971	2,743,208	+6.7%
1976	2,802,485	+2.2%
1981	2,862,286	+2.1%
1986	2,921,357	+2.1%
1991	3,208,970	+9.8%
1996	3,326,510	+3.7%
2001	3,426,350	+3.0%
2006	3,635,571	+6.1%
2011	3,824,221	+5.2%
2016	4,098,927	+7.2%
2021	4,291,732	+4.7%
[9]

Ethnicity

Panethnic groups in Metro Montreal (2001−2021)

Panethnic group	2021[10][11]		2016[12]		2011[13]		2006[14]		2001[15]
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
European[a]	3,059,895	72.74%	3,070,210	76.57%	2,963,860	78.98%	2,980,280	83.05%	2,911,230	86.11%
African	340,140	8.09%	270,940	6.76%	216,310	5.76%	169,065	4.71%	139,305	4.12%
Middle Eastern[b]	285,615	6.79%	220,055	5.49%	172,345	4.59%	113,405	3.16%	79,410	2.35%
Latin American	137,850	3.28%	110,195	2.75%	98,010	2.61%	75,400	2.1%	53,155	1.57%
South Asian	121,260	2.88%	85,925	2.14%	79,540	2.12%	70,615	1.97%	57,935	1.71%
East Asian[c]	116,820	2.78%	100,265	2.5%	83,420	2.22%	79,665	2.22%	58,165	1.72%
Southeast Asian[d]	101,560	2.41%	88,755	2.21%	89,645	2.39%	68,475	1.91%	57,460	1.7%
Indigenous	46,085	1.1%	34,745	0.87%	26,285	0.7%	17,865	0.5%	11,085	0.33%
Other[e]	40,565	0.96%	28,710	0.72%	23,060	0.61%	13,755	0.38%	12,900	0.38%
Total responses	4,206,455	98.01%	4,009,795	97.83%	3,752,470	98.12%	3,588,520	98.71%	3,380,645	98.67%
Total population	4,291,732	100%	4,098,927	100%	3,824,221	100%	3,635,571	100%	3,426,350	100%

• Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.

Language

Mother tongue (2011)^[16]

Language	Greater Montreal	Quebec	Canada
French	65.9%	79.1%	21.4%
English	13.2%	8.9%	58.1%
Arabic	4.5%	2.1%	1.1%
Spanish	3.2%	1.8%	1.3%
Italian	2.7%	1.6%	1.3%
Creole	1.5%	0.8%	0.2%
Mandarin	1.0%	0.1%	1.8%
Greek	1.0%	0.5%	0.4%
Romanian	0.8%	0.4%	0.3%
Portuguese	0.8%	0.5%	0.7%
Russian	0.7%	0.3%	0.5%
Vietnamese	0.7%	0.4%	0.5%
Persian (Farsi)	0.6%	0.3%	0.5%
Cantonese	0.6%	0.1%	1.7%
Tagalog (Filipino)	0.5%	0.2%	1.2%
Armenian	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%
Tamil	0.4%	0.2%	0.4%
Punjabi (Panjabi)	0.3%	0.2%	1.4%
Polish	0.3%	0.2%	0.6%
Bengali	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
German	0.3%	0.2%	1.3%
Urdu	0.3%	0.1%	0.6%
Yiddish	0.2%	0.1%	<0.1%
Cambodian (Khmer)	0.2%	0.1%	<0.1%
Turkish	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
Gujarati	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%
Hungarian	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
Bulgarian	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
Berber (Kabyle)	0.2%	0.1%	<0.1%
Unspecified Chinese	<0.1%	0.1%	0.1%

Transportation

Main article: Exo (public transit)

Exo operates the region's commuter rail and metropolitan bus services, and is the second busiest such system in Canada after Toronto's GO Transit. Established in June 2007, Exo's commuter rail system has six lines linking the downtown core with communities as far west as Hudson, as Far south as Mont-Saint-Hilaire, as far east as Mascouche, and as far north as Saint-Jérôme.

Along with Exo, a sister agency, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) plans, integrates, and coordinates public transport across Greater Montreal, including the Island of Montreal, Laval (Île Jésus), and communities along both the north shore of the Rivière des Mille-Îles and the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. The ARTM's mandate also includes the management of reserved High-occupancy vehicle lanes, metropolitan bus terminuses, park-and-ride lots, and a budget of $163 million, which is shared amongst the transit corporations and inter-municipal public transit organizations.

The Exo/ARTM's territory spans 63 municipalities and one native reserve, 13 regional county municipalities, and 21 transit authorities. It serves a population of approximately 3.7 million people who make more than 750,000 trips daily.^{[citation needed]}

The major transit commissions under the ARTM are:

• Société de transport de Montréal (English: Montreal Transit Corporation), serving the Island of Montreal
• Société de transport de Laval (English: Laval Transit Corporation), serving the city of Laval
• Réseau de transport de Longueuil (English: Longueuil Transit Network), serving the Urban agglomeration of Longueuil

Education

Postsecondary educational institutions in the Greater Montreal Area

Universities	CEGEPs and other colleges	Other schools
McGill University Concordia University Université de Montréal Université du Québec à Montréal Université de Sherbrooke (Longueuil) École de technologie supérieure École des hautes études commerciales École Polytechnique de Montréal Institut national de la recherche scientifique	Cégep André-Laurendeau Cégep Marie-Victorin Cégep de Saint-Laurent Cégep du Vieux-Montréal Cégep régional de Lanaudière Champlain College Saint-Lambert (Saint-Lambert) Collège Ahuntsic Collège de Bois-de-Boulogne Collège Édouard-Montpetit (Longueuil) Collège Gérald-Godin (Sainte-Geneviève) Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf Collège Lionel-Groulx (Sainte-Thérèse) Collège de Maisonneuve College Montmorency (Laval) Collège de Rosemont Dawson College (Westmount) Herzing College John Abbott College (Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue) LaSalle College Marianopolis College (Westmount) Vanier College Collège de Valleyfield (Salaberry-de-Valleyfield)	Lambda School of Music and Fine Arts National Theatre School of Canada Rabbinical College of Canada School of Italian Giovanni Pascoli L'Académie de sécurité IGS

(In Montreal, except where otherwise noted.)

See also

• Montreal Urban Community

Notes

1. 2001-2016: Statistic includes all persons that did not make up part of a visible minority or an indigenous identity.
   
   2021: Statistic includes all persons belonging to the non-indigenous and non-visible minority “White” population group.
2. Statistic includes total responses of "West Asian" and "Arab" under visible minority section on census.
3. Statistic includes total responses of "Chinese", "Korean", and "Japanese" under visible minority section on census.
4. Statistic includes total responses of "Filipino" and "Southeast Asian" under visible minority section on census.
5. Statistic includes total responses of "Visible minority, n.i.e." and "Multiple visible minorities" under visible minority section on census.

Group 1

1. Only a portion of municipalities in the MRC are included in the MMC.
2. Only a portion of municipalities in the MRC are included in the CMA.

Group 2

1. classified as an equivalent territory

Group 3

1. in area served by the Réseau de transport métropolitain