Alma (;
2021 Town population: 30,331;
UA Population 20,274) is a town in
Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, in the Canadian province of
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
.
History
The present town of Alma was formed in 1962 from the merging of four villages: Isle-Maligne, Naudville, Riverbend and St-Joseph d'Alma. The oldest of the villages,
St-Joseph-d'Alma, was founded in 1867 by Damase Boulanger. The area became an important industrial centre during the 1920s and 1930s with the construction of a hydro-electrical power station on the Grande-Décharge River, a paper mill (Price) and an aluminum smelting plant (
Alcan), all of which are still in activity today.
In 2002, Alma merged with the Municipality of Delisle. Both modern day Alma and St-Joseph d'Alma are named after the
Battle of the Alma.
Geography
Alma is located on the southeast coast of
Lac Saint-Jean where it flows into the
Saguenay River, in the
Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, Canada, approximately 175 km north of
Quebec City
Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
. Alma is the seat of
Lac-Saint-Jean-Est Regional County Municipality
Lac-Saint-Jean-Est () is a regional county municipality in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. The seat is Alma. In 2016, 99.3% reported that they spoke French most often at home, according to the census.
Subdivisions
There ...
. Alma is the second largest city in population in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region after the city of Saguenay.
Alma is the seat of the judicial district of Alma.
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population conducted by
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...
, Alma had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Population trend:
[Statistics Canada: 1996, ]2001
The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
, 2006, 2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
, 2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
, 2021 census
* Population in 2021: 30,331
* Population in 2016: 30,771
* Population in 2011: 30,904
* Population in 2006: 29,998
* Population in 2001: 25,918
* Population in 1996: 26,127
* Population in 1991: 25,910
* Population in 1986: 25,923
* Population in 1981: 26,322
* Population in 1976: 25,638
* Population in 1971: 24,956
* Population in 1966: 22,195
* Population in 1961: 13,309
* Population in 1956: 10,822
* Population in 1951: 7,975
* Population in 1941: 6,449
* Population in 1931: 3,970
* Population in 1921: 850
Mother tongue:
* English as first language: 0.4%
* French as first language: 98.5%
* English and French as first language: 0.3%
* Other as first language: 0.7%
Infrastructure
Transportation
Alma is serviced by the
Alma Airport, located 4.1 km to the south of the town.
Sister cities
Alma has been twinned with
Falaise, Calvados, France, since 1969.
Notable people
*
Camille Bedard, hockey player
*
Chris Boucher, basketball player for the
Toronto Raptors
*
Lucien Bouchard, former premier of Québec
*
Guy Cloutier, producer and artist manager
*
Guillaume Desbiens, hockey player
*
Charles Hudon, hockey player for the
Ontario Reign
*
Pierre Lapointe, singer
*
Émilie Fortin Tremblay (1872–1949), one of the first white women to cross the Chilkoot on the way to the Yukon gold fields
*
François-Louis Tremblay, Olympic gold medallist short-track speed skater
*
Mario Tremblay, hockey player and former coach of the
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...
See also
*
List of cities in Quebec
This is the list of municipalities that have the Classification of municipalities in Quebec, Quebec municipality type of city (Quebec), city (''ville'', code=V), an Administrative divisions of Quebec, administrative division defined by the Minist ...
References
External links
Ville d'Alma
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Quebec