If you’ve searched “biggest city in Canada” or “canadian cities by population,” you’re probably after more than a list of numbers. Population size is one of the clearest early signals of where rental demand and housing pressure build up over time, and we break down which cities actually come out ahead for best cities to invest in real estate in Canada in a separate guide. Here’s the population picture on its own first, since it’s worth understanding before you compare it to anything else.
Quick answer: Toronto is the biggest city in Canada, both within its own city limits and as a metro area.
Canada’s Biggest Cities by Population (City Limits)
| Rank | City | Province | Population (approx, 2026) |
| 1 | Toronto | Ontario | 2.8 million |
| 2 | Montreal | Quebec | 1.8 million |
| 3 | Calgary | Alberta | 1.3 million |
| 4 | Ottawa | Ontario | 1.0 million |
| 5 | Edmonton | Alberta | 1.0 million |
| 6 | Winnipeg | Manitoba | 750,000 |
| 7 | Mississauga | Ontario | 720,000 |
| 8 | Brampton | Ontario | 660,000 |
| 9 | Vancouver | British Columbia | 660,000 |
| 10 | Hamilton | Ontario | 570,000 |
These are city limit figures, meaning population inside the official municipal boundary only. That’s why Mississauga and Brampton show up as separate entries even though most people would lump them into “the Toronto area.”
City Limits vs. Metro Area: Why the Numbers Look Different
Statistics Canada also tracks Census Metropolitan Areas, or CMAs, which group a core city with the surrounding municipalities that function as one connected labour and housing market. This is usually what people actually mean when they picture “how big” a Canadian city really is.
| Rank | Metro Area | Population (approx, 2026) |
| 1 | Toronto CMA | 6.4 million+ |
| 2 | Montreal CMA | 4.3 million+ |
| 3 | Vancouver CMA | 2.7 million+ |
| 4 | Calgary CMA | 1.7 million |
| 5 | Ottawa-Gatineau CMA | 1.5 million |
Vancouver is a good example of why this distinction matters. It ranks outside the top 5 by city limits alone, but climbs to third once its metro area is counted, since most of Metro Vancouver’s population lives in surrounding cities like Surrey and Burnaby rather than Vancouver proper.
Why Population Growth Has Slowed, and Why That Matters
For most of the past decade, immigration has been the main engine behind Canada’s urban population growth, not birth rates. Statistics Canada data shows the country added roughly 816,000 temporary and permanent immigrants in 2024, compared to only about 34,000 people from natural increase (births minus deaths).
That engine has slowed hard in the last year. Statistics Canada’s own figures show population growth across Canada’s 41 CMAs dropped to just 1.0% in the year to July 2025, down sharply from 3.5% the year before. The slowdown is tied to fewer non-permanent residents in the country, following the federal government’s 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan, the first plan to also set targets for temporary residents. National population estimates actually showed a decline after July 2025.
For anyone tracking rental demand, this is the part that matters more than the ranking itself. Population growth is what pushes rental demand and vacancy rates in a city, so a slowdown at the national level doesn’t hit every city the same way. Some markets are still growing well above that national average. Others that leaned heavily on newcomers and non-permanent residents are likely to feel the slowdown first.
What This Means If You’re Comparing Cities for Investment
A city’s total population size tells you how big the market is today. It doesn’t tell you where demand is actually heading over the next year or two, and that gap is exactly where a lot of “biggest cities” lists stop short.
A few things worth checking beyond raw population size:
• Recent growth rate, not just current size
• How much of that growth came from non-permanent residents specifically, since that’s the group most exposed to policy changes
• Local rental vacancy rates, which respond to population changes faster than home prices do
This is also why the biggest city isn’t automatically the best one to invest in. A slower-growing but still-affordable market can outperform a huge city where growth is now cooling.
Whether you’re eyeing your next rental property or building a real estate career around Canada’s growth markets, understanding where the population is actually moving matters more than chasing whichever city tops a list. If that’s a niche you want to build your business around, Join a real estate brokerage that already works across these markets every day.
