City North America
Toronto
Toronto is the biggest city in Canada. It sits beside a huge lake. Its tall CN Tower pokes up into the sky!
Toronto, on the shore of Lake Ontario, is the capital of the province of Ontario and the most populous city in Canada. People from all over the world have made their homes here. The 2021 census counted 2,794,356 people in the city and 6,202,225 in the metropolitan area.
Toronto, capital of Ontario, lies on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario and is Canada's most populous city and its financial and commercial center. Chosen as a colonial capital in 1793 and named York, it was incorporated as Toronto in 1834. The 2021 census counted 2,794,356 residents and 6,202,225 in the metropolitan area.
Photo: Jchmrt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Toronto
Toronto is the biggest city in Canada.
It sits beside Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes. Toronto has very tall buildings, and the tallest of all is the CN Tower. People from many countries live in Toronto.
Toronto is the capital of Ontario, a province in southeastern Canada. It stands on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes, which forms part of the border between Canada and the United States.
The 2021 census counted 2,794,356 people in the city and 6,202,225 in the whole metropolitan area, which makes Toronto the most populous city in Canada. It is the country's main center of banking and business, and people from all over the world have moved here.
Toronto, capital of Ontario, occupies an almost uniformly flat site on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. Access to Atlantic shipping through the St. Lawrence Seaway and to U.S. industrial centers through the Great Lakes, plus some of Canada's best farmland around it, made it a trading, transportation and manufacturing center.
The city covers about 632 km² and counted 2,794,356 people in 2021, with 6,202,225 in a metropolitan area of about 5,905 km². Britannica calls it Canada's most populous city and its financial and commercial center. Postwar immigration, from Europe in the 1950s and 1960s and then especially from South Asia and China after immigration laws loosened in the 1970s, made it cosmopolitan: by 2006 more than half of the metropolitan area's people belonged to visible minorities.
- Country
- Canada (capital of Ontario)
- People in the city (2021 census)
- 2,794,356
- Toronto metropolitan area (2021)
- 6,202,225
- Area of the city
- about 632 km²
Famous places
The CN Tower is a very tall tower in Toronto.
It is 553 meters high. Toronto also has a castle-like house called Casa Loma, a museum with a dinosaur exhibition and a market that is more than 200 years old.
Toronto's skyline is dominated by the CN Tower, a communications and observation tower 553 meters high, surrounded by bank towers more than 50 stories tall. Other famous buildings include City Hall, from 1965, and the Royal Ontario Museum, with its crystal-shaped front and a dinosaur exhibition.
On a hill north of downtown stands Casa Loma, a mansion with towers like a castle, built in 1911–14. In the old town, the St. Lawrence Market neighborhood is centered on a market founded in 1803.
The skyline is dominated by the CN Tower, a 553 m communications and observation spire, and by bank and office towers of more than 50 stories, among them First Canadian Place, Scotia Plaza, Commerce Court and the Toronto-Dominion Centre. Other prominent buildings include City Hall (1965), the Eaton Centre, the gilded Royal Bank Plaza, Roy Thomson Hall and the Royal Ontario Museum, with its crystal-shaped facade. Beneath downtown runs an extensive system of underground tunnels and concourses lined with shops, restaurants and theaters.
Casa Loma, a turreted, castle-like mansion, was built in 1911–14 for Sir Henry Pellatt. The St. Lawrence Market district, at the core of Old Town Toronto, has red and yellow brick Georgian buildings around a market founded in 1803, and nearby the Distillery District reuses Victorian industrial buildings for restaurants, shops and theaters.
- CN Tower
- 553 m tall
- City Hall
- 1965
- Casa Loma
- castle-like mansion built 1911–14
- St. Lawrence Market
- founded 1803
From York to megacity
Long ago, First Nations people traveled and traded here.
Later, a small town called York was built by the lake. It grew and grew and changed its name to Toronto. Now it is Canada's biggest city.
First Nations peoples lived in the region long before Europeans arrived and used a trade route called the Toronto Passage, from the mouth of the Humber River north to Georgian Bay. In 1793 John Graves Simcoe chose the site as the capital of Upper Canada and named it York.
In 1834, when the town had more than 9,000 people, it became a city and took back the name Toronto. Railways and factories helped it grow, and it became the capital of the province of Ontario when Canada was formed in 1867. By the 1976 census, Toronto had passed Montreal to become Canada's largest city.
Before Europeans arrived, First Nations peoples used the Toronto Passage, a portage from the mouth of the Humber River to Georgian Bay. The Seneca had villages here in the 1660s, and the Mississauga (Ojibwa) occupied the area by the end of that century. French trading posts stood at the Humber from 1720 and Fort Rouillé from the 1750s, until it was burned in 1759. In 1787 the British negotiated with three Mississauga chiefs to acquire about 100,000 hectares along the lake.
In 1793 Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe chose the fine harbor as the capital of Upper Canada and renamed it York; U.S. forces took and occupied it for 11 days in 1813. Incorporated in 1834 with the name Toronto restored, it grew with canals and the railways of the 1850s and became Ontario's capital at Confederation in 1867. Toronto passed Montreal as Canada's largest city by the 1976 census, and its present boundaries date from 1998, when the city was amalgamated with five neighboring boroughs.
Getting around Toronto
People in Toronto ride the subway, streetcars and buses.
Commuter trains bring people from towns along the lake. A ferry goes out to the islands in the lake. Big airplanes fly from the airport.
Toronto has had streetcars since 1861, first pulled by horses and electric since the 1890s; in the early 2000s they ran on 11 routes. A subway was built in the early 1950s, and buses were added too. GO trains, started in 1967, carry commuters from towns along the lake.
Ferries cross to the Toronto Islands, which have places for recreation and an airport. The big international airport, Toronto Pearson, is about 30 kilometers west of the city.
Public transit has a long history: a horse-drawn omnibus ran by 1849, horse-drawn streetcars by 1861 and electric streetcars by the 1890s; the city consolidated the lines in 1921, and in the early 21st century streetcars ran on 11 routes and about 85 km of track. The subway was built in the early 1950s, and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) was created with Metropolitan Toronto in 1953 to serve the whole region. GO (Government of Ontario) trains began in 1967 to serve commuters spread along the lake.
The Gardiner Expressway, the Don Valley Parkway and Highway 401 form a ring road. Two airports were established in 1938: Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on the Toronto Islands, reached from the Harbourfront docks, and Toronto Pearson International Airport, about 30 km west in Malton, named Pearson in 1984.
- Subway
- built from the early 1950s
- GO trains
- commuter service since 1967
- Toronto Pearson International Airport
- about 30 km west of the city
Snowy winters, warm summers
Winters in Toronto are cold and snowy.
More than a meter of snow can fall in a winter. Summers are warm, and some days are hot and sticky.
Toronto has cold winters and warm summers, and its weather is shaped by the nearby Great Lakes. At the World Meteorological Organization's station at Toronto Pearson airport, January days averaged about −1 °C and nights about −7 °C between 1971 and 2000. More than 131 centimeters of snow fall in a typical winter.
In July, days averaged about 26 °C and nights about 18 °C, and some summer days go above 32 °C. Rain and snow are spread fairly evenly through the year, about 834 millimeters in all.
Britannica describes a continental climate considerably modified by the Great Lakes, with wind chill that can make January feel much colder and summer days that can exceed 32 °C with high humidity. WMO normals for Toronto Pearson International Airport (1971–2000, Meteorological Service of Canada) give average daily highs and lows of about −1 °C and −7 °C in January and about 26 °C and 18 °C in July.
Precipitation is relatively even through the year, between about 51 mm (February) and about 83 mm (September) a month, about 834 mm in all; in winter it falls as snow, totaling more than 131 cm. At 43°40′ N, Toronto lies only slightly north of the latitude of California's northern boundary.
- January, average daily high and low (WMO Toronto Pearson station, 1971–2000)
- about −1 °C and −7 °C
- July, average daily high and low (same station and period)
- about 26 °C and 18 °C
- Rain and snow in a year (sum of the monthly averages)
- about 834 mm
Living in Toronto
Toronto has neighborhoods full of food and shops from around the world.
There is a zoo, a science center and a museum with a dinosaur exhibition. Fans cheer for Toronto's hockey, basketball and baseball teams.
Toronto is a city of many neighborhoods, such as Chinatown and Kensington Market, where shops and restaurants reflect the many cultures of its people. Banks, insurance companies, universities and tourism give many people jobs, and five of Canada's six national banks have their headquarters here.
For fun, families visit the Toronto Zoo, which opened in 1974, the Ontario Science Centre and the Royal Ontario Museum. The Maple Leafs play ice hockey, the Raptors basketball and the Blue Jays baseball, and Toronto is home to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
As manufacturing specialized and service jobs grew after the 1980s, Toronto became a center of finance, administration, real estate, insurance, education, wholesaling, retailing and tourism; it houses five of the six national banks and Canada's dominant stock exchange. Education is one of its major service industries, and the University of Toronto is among its best-known institutions.
Cultural life includes the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Factory Theatre, which Britannica calls Canada's largest producer of exclusively Canadian plays, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Ontario Science Centre, whose original building closed in 2024; it reopened at a temporary site at Harbourfront Centre in June 2026 while a new home is built at Ontario Place. The Maple Leafs (hockey) and Raptors (basketball) share an arena opened in 1999, the Blue Jays (baseball) and Argonauts (Canadian football) at the Rogers Centre (1989), and the city hosts the Hockey Hall of Fame. Many ethnic communities organize their own festivals, and Niagara Falls lies about 80 km to the south.
- Banks
- five of Canada's six national banks are based here
- Hockey Hall of Fame
- in Toronto
- Toronto Zoo
- opened 1974
Toronto on the map
Find Toronto on the globe.
It is in Canada, in North America. Look for the Great Lakes. Toronto is on the shore of Lake Ontario, the lake at the eastern end.
Toronto is in southeastern Canada, on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. Across the lake is the United States. Niagara Falls is about 80 kilometers to the south.
The Toronto Islands lie just off the shore, less than a kilometer from the harbor, and the Humber and Don rivers flow through the city into the lake.
Toronto lies at about 43.7° N and 79.4° W on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Humber River, which once offered a trade route north to Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay. About 11,000 years ago a much larger glacial lake, Lake Iroquois, covered the area; its old shoreline is the rise of about 12 m some 5–6 km inland.
The Toronto Islands lie about 0.8 km offshore. Niagara Falls is about 80 km south, and Algonquin Provincial Park about 210 km north.
- Latitude
- about 43.7° north
- Longitude
- about 79.4° west
- Niagara Falls
- about 80 km south
Amazing facts
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Toronto used to be called York.
In 1793 John Graves Simcoe renamed the place York. When it became a city in 1834, it took back the name Toronto.
Simcoe changed the name from Toronto to York in 1793; the former name was restored when the city was incorporated in 1834, by which time it had more than 9,000 people.
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Toronto has streets under the ground, with shops!
Under downtown Toronto there is a big system of tunnels lined with shops, restaurants and theaters.
Downtown Toronto has an extensive system of underground tunnels and concourses lined with shops, restaurants and theaters.
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Long ago, a giant lake covered Toronto.
About 11,000 years ago, a glacial lake called Lake Iroquois, much bigger than Lake Ontario, covered the Toronto area.
About 11,000 years ago glacial Lake Iroquois stood about 40 m higher than today's Lake Ontario; its old shoreline is a rise of about 12 m some 5–6 km inland.
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Toronto's old streetcars were once pulled by horses.
Toronto had horse-drawn streetcars by 1861. They became electric in the 1890s.
Horse-drawn streetcars replaced the omnibus by 1861 and were electrified by the 1890s; the city took over all lines in 1921.
Words to know
- province
- one of the large parts that some countries, like Canada, are divided into
- skyline
- the outline of a city's buildings against the sky
- metropolitan area
- a city together with the towns and suburbs around it
- multicultural
- having people from many different cultures and backgrounds
- streetcar
- a passenger vehicle that runs on rails along city streets
- commuter
- a person who travels regularly between home and work
- glacial lake
- a lake formed by water from a melting glacier
Discovery challenge
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Toronto is the biggest city in which country?
Toronto is the most populous city in which country?
Toronto passed Montreal by the 1976 census to become the largest city in which country?
- Canada
- Mexico
- Australia
Show the answer
Canada
Canada! Toronto is its biggest city.
Canada. Toronto had 2,794,356 people in 2021.
Canada; the gap with Montreal has continued to grow since 1976.
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Toronto sits beside which big lake?
Toronto stands on the shore of which Great Lake?
Toronto lies on the northwestern shore of which lake, part of the Canada–U.S. border?
- Lake Ontario
- Lake Victoria
- Lake Baikal
Show the answer
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario! It is one of the Great Lakes.
Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes.
Lake Ontario, which links Toronto to the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence Seaway.
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What was Toronto called long ago?
What name did Simcoe give the town in 1793?
Under what name was Toronto the capital of Upper Canada from 1793 until its incorporation in 1834?
- York
- Kingston
- Victoria
Show the answer
York
York! Later it went back to the name Toronto.
York. It became the city of Toronto in 1834.
York; the name Toronto was restored at incorporation in 1834.
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How tall is the CN Tower?
How tall is Toronto's CN Tower?
What is the height of the CN Tower communications and observation spire?
- 53 meters
- 553 meters
- 5,530 meters
Show the answer
553 meters
553 meters! That is very, very tall.
553 meters, much taller than the 50-story bank towers around it.
553 m (1,815 ft).
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Which month is colder in Toronto?
In which month is Toronto colder, on average?
In which month do nights at Toronto Pearson average about −7 °C (1971–2000)?
- January
- July
Show the answer
January
January! It is freezing and snowy.
January days average about −1 °C, while July days average about 26 °C.
January; July nights average about 18 °C.
Nearby places
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Watch
Landmark
CN Tower
The CN Tower in Toronto is 553 meters tall. It was built between 1973 and 1975 so that radio and TV signals could reach over the city's new tall buildings. For more than 30 years it was the tallest freestanding structure in the world, and today more than two million people visit it every year.
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Landmark
Welland Canal
The Welland Canal is a canal 43.5 kilometers long in Ontario, Canada. It joins Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, so ships can go around Niagara Falls. Eight locks lift and lower ships across a height difference of 99.4 meters between the two lakes.
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Natural wonder
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls is a set of three waterfalls on the Niagara River, which flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario across the border between Canada and the United States. About 500 waterfalls in the world are taller, but Niagara is famous for its height together with the enormous amount of water that pours over it.
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Landmark
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal was dug across New York State from 1817 to 1825. The first canal ran 363 miles (about 584 km) from Albany to Buffalo, linking the Hudson River with the Great Lakes, and climbed with 83 locks. It made travel faster and cheaper, helped cities grow along its banks, and has carried boats ever since 1825.
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Natural wonder
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is the last of the five Great Lakes in a chain of water that flows to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence River. It is the smallest Great Lake by surface area but holds about 1,640 cubic kilometers of water. Its basin once held a much bigger lake fed by melting ice.
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Natural wonder
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the southernmost of the Great Lakes and holds the least water of the five. It has the Great Lakes' most productive fishery, and in summer and fall green blooms of cyanobacteria can grow in its western part. Its water flows on to Lake Ontario through the Niagara River.
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City
Detroit
Detroit is the largest city in Michigan, on the Detroit River across from Windsor, Canada. French settlers founded it in 1701, and in 1896 Charles Brady King drove Detroit's first gasoline-powered car down Woodward Avenue. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 649,095 people in Detroit in July 2025.
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City
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It stands where three rivers meet, beside the Ottawa River, which divides the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It began as a lumber town called Bytown, became the capital in 1857, and had 1,017,449 people at the 2021 census.
Explore next
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Country
Canada
Canada is the second-largest country in the world, stretching across the north of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and up into the Arctic. It has the Rocky Mountains, thousands of islands and about 42 million people, who speak English, French and many other languages.
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Watch
Landmark
CN Tower
The CN Tower in Toronto is 553 meters tall. It was built between 1973 and 1975 so that radio and TV signals could reach over the city's new tall buildings. For more than 30 years it was the tallest freestanding structure in the world, and today more than two million people visit it every year.
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Watch
Natural wonder
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls is a set of three waterfalls on the Niagara River, which flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario across the border between Canada and the United States. About 500 waterfalls in the world are taller, but Niagara is famous for its height together with the enormous amount of water that pours over it.
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Watch
Natural wonder
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is the last of the five Great Lakes in a chain of water that flows to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence River. It is the smallest Great Lake by surface area but holds about 1,640 cubic kilometers of water. Its basin once held a much bigger lake fed by melting ice.
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Watch
City
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It stands where three rivers meet, beside the Ottawa River, which divides the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It began as a lumber town called Bytown, became the capital in 1857, and had 1,017,449 people at the 2021 census.
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City
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Quebec, a French-speaking province of Canada. It sits on an island in the St. Lawrence River, around a wooded hill called Mount Royal. It began in 1642 as a French settlement called Ville-Marie. Quebec's statistics institute estimated that 1,913,561 people lived in the city in July 2025.
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City
Chicago
Chicago, in the state of Illinois, is the third-biggest city in the United States, with about 2.7 million people (2025). It grew fast beside Lake Michigan, rebuilt itself after the Great Fire of 1871 and became famous for its skyscrapers, railways, museums and music.
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City
New York City
New York City sits where the Hudson River meets a great harbor on the Atlantic coast. It has been the largest city in the United States since 1790. About 8.8 million people lived in its five boroughs in 2020, among skyscrapers, bridges and parks.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Toronto on Lake Ontario and explain how the Great Lakes help it trade.
- Describe how immigration has made Toronto a multicultural city.
- Explain the difference between a city and its metropolitan area using real census numbers.
- Read temperature averages to describe a climate with cold winters and warm summers.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- People from all over the world live in Toronto. What can neighbors learn from each other's foods, languages and festivals?
- Toronto has tunnels under downtown lined with shops. Why might a cold city build streets underground?
- Toronto changed its name to York and back again. Why do you think names matter to a city?
Try at home or in class
- Build a skyline: cut buildings of different heights from paper, including one very tall, thin tower, and glue them along a blue strip of lake.
- Make a world-foods map: list foods your family eats, find the country each comes from on a map, and talk about how they reached you.
Key vocabulary: province, skyline, metropolitan area, multicultural, streetcar, commuter, glacial lake
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Natural Earth vector data , Natural Earth (NACIS) (Public domain)
- Toronto , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Toronto: History , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Toronto: Economy , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Toronto: Cultural life , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Toronto, Ontario: climatological information , World Meteorological Organization, World Weather Information Service
- The Ontario Science Centre has a new temporary home at the Harbourfront Centre , CP24
- CN Tower history , CN Tower
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.