Central Canada

Central Canada: the places inside it, the companies based here, and where this atlas has research on it.

zone · North America · page prepared 2026-11-07

Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Central Canada →

A

Central Canada at a glance

Rolled up from the 389 regions inside Central Canada on this site, with census figures from Statistics Canada.

Population22,725,200
census, summed from provinces/states
Places inside384
174 with a full /local page
Businesses on file541,568
business register, all places inside
Companies headquartered2,879
in the company directory
Who represents them174
places with a /politics page
Property & employers62 · 70
/property and /employers records
L

Who leads the provinces and territories inside

From each one's researched profile.

  • Ontario — Doug Ford Premier of Ontario, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario ↗
  • Québec — Paul St-Pierre Plamondon Premier of Québec, Parti Québécois ↗
D

Census

Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population — summed from the province/state summaries; income, rent and rates are population-weighted means of their medians, not national medians.

Median household income$86,496
Median rent$1,156/mo
Immigrants24.3%
Renters34.7%
Aged 65+19.3%
Unemployment10.5%
Low income10.8%
Speak a non-official language at home12.8%
Non-official languages spoken most often at home
  • Mandarin295,980 · 1.3%
  • Spanish228,180 · 1%
  • Arabic221,890 · 1%
  • Punjabi (Panjabi)214,465 · 0.9%
  • Yue (Cantonese)207,805 · 0.9%
  • Urdu110,900 · 0.5%
  • Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino)93,325 · 0.4%
  • Tamil91,470 · 0.4%
  • Portuguese90,650 · 0.4%
  • Russian84,330 · 0.4%
  • Iranian Persian81,465 · 0.4%
  • Gujarati60,605 · 0.3%
P

Provinces and territories

One row per census summary, largest first.

NamePopulationMedian household incomeMedian rentImmigrantsUnemploymentBusinesses on file
Ontario14,223,710$93,408$1,36330.1%12.3%378,350
Quebec8,501,490$74,931$81114.6%7.6%165,971
E

Largest employers headquartered in Central Canada

Worldwide head offices from the /employers research, ranked by people employed as each company reports it.

  1. 1.Loblaw Companies Limited Brampton, ON · Retail — food and pharmacy (corporate head office) ↗190,000 worldwide, 2026
  2. 2.TD Bank Group (The Toronto-Dominion Bank) Toronto, ON · Banking ↗102,218 worldwide, 2025
  3. 3.Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Toronto, ON · Banking ↗100,000 worldwide, 2025
  4. 4.Scotiabank (The Bank of Nova Scotia) Toronto, ON · Banking ↗86,431 worldwide, 2025
  5. 5.Canada Post Corporation Ottawa, ON · Postal and parcel delivery — Crown corporation ↗60,400 worldwide
  6. 6.BMO Financial Group (Bank of Montreal) Toronto, ON · Banking ↗53,000 worldwide, 2025
  7. 7.Dollarama inc. Montréal, QC · Discount retail ↗41,000 worldwide, 2026
  8. 8.Great-West Lifeco Winnipeg, MB · Finance — life insurance and wealth holding company ↗33,430 worldwide
  9. 9.Sun Life Financial Toronto, ON · Insurance — life and wealth ↗32,151 worldwide, 2025
  10. 10.Celestica Toronto, ON · Electronics manufacturing services ↗29,591 worldwide, 2025
  11. 11.Barrick Mining Corporation Toronto, ON · Gold and copper mining ↗27,000 worldwide, 2025
  12. 12.OpenText Corporation Waterloo, ON · Technology — enterprise information management software ↗19,900 worldwide
  13. 13.Agnico Eagle Mines Toronto, ON · Gold mining ↗18,216 worldwide, 2025
  14. 14.Knowlton Development Corporation (kdc/one) Longueuil, QC · Manufacturing — beauty, personal-care and home-care products (contract formulation) ↗15,000 worldwide
  15. 15.GoodLife Fitness London, ON · Fitness clubs ↗13,000 worldwide
B

Largest places in Central Canada

By registry population; places with a full /local page are marked.

  1. 1.Toronto, Ontario full2,794,356
  2. 2.Montréal, QC full1,762,950
  3. 3.Ottawa, Canada full1,017,449
  4. 4.Mississauga, Ontario full717,961
  5. 5.Brampton, Ontario full656,480
  6. 6.North York, Ontario full644,685
  7. 7.Hamilton, Ontario full569,353
  8. 8.Niagara Region, Canada551,000
  9. 9.Ville du Québec (City), QC full549,459
  10. 10.Laval, Quebec full438,366
  11. 11.London, Ontario (Canada) full422,324
  12. 12.Markham, Ontario full338,503
  13. 13.Gatineau-Hull, Quebec full291,041
  14. 14.Kitchener (K/W), Ontario full256,885
  15. 15.Longueuil, Quebec full254,480
R

Inside Central Canada

3 regions have Central Canada as their parent.

C

Companies based in Central Canada

1 in the Research Upon company directory list their headquarters here, and 2,879 across Central Canada and the places inside it — search them all below.

CompanyIndustryFounded
Pivotal TherapeuticsHealth2011

areaAbout this page: figures for the whole of Central Canada are rolled up from every region inside it; each place inside has a page of its own, and the companies headquartered here are listed above.