Nicknames for Québec City include La vieille capitale (The Old Capital) in English and La capitale nationale (The National Capital). The province of Québec is sometimes called La belle province (The Beautiful Province).
Founded on July 3, 1608, Québec City is one of the oldest cities in North America established by Europeans.
Popular tourist attractions in Québec City are The Battlefields Park with its 50 historical artillery pieces, Plains of Abraham, Château Frontenac hotel a famous landmark on the city’s skyline, Citadelle of Québec, National Museum of Fine Arts of Québec and the Museum of Civilization. Many of these famous sites are in or near the Old Québec sector.
Research website numbeo ranks Québec City in the top 16% compared to the 250 cities evaluated on its overall quality of life index at June 2020. Québec City scored well} on index factors such as safety (safest 2%), traffic commute time (fastest 18%), property price to income ratio (lowest 19%), pollution (cleanest 25%) and health care (best 36%). On the negative side, Québec City rates poorly for climate (bottom 7%).
Québec City is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the site of the world’s biggest annual ice canoeing race as part of Québec’s Winter Carnival. About 50 teams race across four miles (6.4 kilometers) on the icy St. Lawrence River. The Winter Festival in Québec City is also the world’s largest.
Notorious for its cold, windy and snowy winters, the coldest temperature ever recorded in Québec City was -34 degrees Fahrenheit (-36.7 degrees Celsius) on January 14, 2015.
Québec City serves as headquarters for 9 of Canada’s 500 largest corporations by revenue. Examples of these large businesses include Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Industrial Alliance Insurance, SSQ Société d’assurance-vie, Investissement Québec and integrated construction firm EBC Inc.
From an international trade perspective, the province of Québec shipped C$91.2 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2019. Its most valuable exports include aircraft, automobiles, aluminum, paper, copper, iron, petroleum oils, turbo-jet parts and electronics components according to the Canadian International Merchandise Trade Database.
Québec City’s unemployment rate was 17% at April 2020, the highest jobless rate ever. That percentage is up from 4.5% just two months earlier in February 2020.
Capital Facts for Québec City, Canada: Quick Reference
Geography
Capital landmarks: Le Centre Vidéotron, Gare du Palais, Observatoire de la Capitale, Old Québec, Pepsi Coliseum and the Plains of Abraham
Famous People
Below, you will find 10 of the most famous people born in Québec City, Canada.
- Myriam Bédard, Olympic gold medal biathlete (born Dec. 22, 1969)
- Norm MacDonald, comedian (born Oct. 17, 1963)
- Sylvie Bernier, Olympic gold medal diver (born Jan. 31, 1964)
- Mark Garneau, politician & former astronaut (born Feb. 23, 1949)
- Gaétan Boucher, Olympic speed skating champion (born May 10, 1958)
- Imad Royal, R&B singer (born Apr. 28, 1992)
- Michael Mando, actor (born Jul. 13, 1981)
- Manon Rheaume, Olympic silver medal hockey goaltender (born Feb. 24, 1972)
- Klo Pelgag, pop singer (born Mar. 13, 1990)
- Alain Vigneault, NHL hockey coach (born May 14, 1961)
Note: Data for our Famous People tab was sourced from Google searches of published Wikipedia articles specific to each person’s name.
Population
Demonym for a Québec province resident: Québecker
Population: 826,109 (Québec City) at September 2, 2020
Density: 4,719 people per square mile (1,822 per square kilometer)
Population: 8,433,301 (Province of Québec) at September 2, 2020
Density: 16 people per square mile (6 per square kilometer)
Financial
Real GDP: C$35.8 billion in 2018 (Province of Québec)
GDP per person: $43,742
Note: The above GDP metrics are on a Purchasing Power Parity basis and are in Canadian dollars.
Official currency used in Québec City: Canadian dollars
Research
Research Sources:
Brookings Institution, Global Metro Monitor Report (includes GDP data).
CBC, Quebec unemployment rate soars to 17%, highest ever recorded.
Fortune, Global 500 2016.
Guinness World Records, Largest ice canoeing race.
Numbeo, Quality of Life Index by City.
National Post, The FP500.
Official Government Website, Official Québec City website.
Québec International, Québec City Economic Statistics includes real GDP.
Statistics Canada, Canadian International Merchandise Trade Database.
Statistics Canada, Labour force characteristics, unadjusted, by census metropolitan area.
Wikimedia Commons, City Flags.
Note: Some city flags were unavailable. If so, attribution belongs to Wikimedia Commons for pertinent country flags.
Wikipedia, Capitale-Nationale.
Wikipedia, Québec City.
Wikipedia, Québec (province).
World Population Review, Quebec City Population.
Québec’s National Holiday occurs each June 24.
Québec City occupies 175.05 square miles (453.38 square kilometers). The provincial capital city’s population was 826,109 people as of September 2, 2020.
At the provincial level, Québec’s population is 8.4 million inhabitants living within a land area measuring 527,079 square miles (1,365,128 square kilometers).
Québec City’s population density is more concentrated averaging 4,719 residents per square mile (1,822 per square kilometer).
Zooming out to the province of Québec’s land boundaries, population density drops to an average 16 people per square mile (6 per square kilometer).
