Edmonton Population

Edmonton is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. At the heart of the province, Edmonton serves as the main economic and business center. Before reaching its current million-strong population, Edmonton, like all Canadian cities, experienced an economic boom that further boosted the city’s population. Edmonton now boasts of 1,081,300 inhabitants (as of Aug. 12, 2008)

Breakdown of population by ethnicity

Though the population of Edmonton features a variety of ethnicities aside from the predominant whites and aborigines, the largest ethnic cluster in the city were European in nature, such as those from Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and France, who found home in the city.

By race, the whites dominated the Edmonton population at a 71.8 %. About 5.3% of the total population is Aboriginal, while the remaining 22.9 % is made up of visible minorities such as Asians, Latins, Blacks, and Arabs. For the other ethnicities, people of Asian origin also figure into the population of Edmonton. The Edmonton population is made up of 45,305 individuals with Chinese background, 38,225 of South Asian origin, 18,245 Filipinos, and 10,635 of Southeast Asian roots. Another big part of the population is the black community that rise up to 20,000 in population, Arabs at 11,205, those of Latin American origin at 8,650, multiple visible minorities at 4,940, Koreans at 3,440, those of West Asian roots at 2,690, the Japanese at 1,845, and other visible minorities at 1,255.

Population boom because of industries

Edmonton receives an influx of immigrants from foreign countries and even from neighboring provinces due to its booming industrial sector. Opportunities to build livelihoods can be found in Edmonton primarily because it became known as the “Oil Capital of Canada” back in the 1940s due to the naturally-occurring oil reserves in the area. Though the lure of oil has significantly waned through the years, other industries have emerged from the city of Edmonton. Edmonton remains the economic and business center of the province of Alberta, housing industries such as technology and even life sciences.