Sherbrooke

Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of Quebec, coextensive with the city of Sherbrooke. With 172,950 residents at the Canada 2021 Census, It is the sixth largest city in the province and the 30th largest in Canada. The Sherbrooke Census Metropolitan Area had 227,398 inhabitants, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Quebec and 19th in Canada.

Sherbrooke is the primary economic, political, cultural and institutional centre of Estrie, and was known as the ''Queen of the Eastern Townships'' at the beginning of the 20th century.

There are eight institutions educating 40,000 students and employing 11,000 people, 3,700 of whom are professors, teachers and researchers. The direct economic impact of these institutions exceeds 1 billion dollars. The proportion of university students is 10.32 students per 100 inhabitants, giving Sherbrooke the largest concentration of students in Quebec.

Sherbrooke rose as a manufacturing centre in the 1800s, and today the service sector is prominent.

The Sherbrooke region is surrounded by mountains, rivers and lakes. There are several ski hills nearby and various tourist attractions in regional flavour. Mont-Bellevue Park, a large park in the city, is used for downhill skiing.

Toponymy

The city was named in 1818 for John Coape Sherbrooke, a former Governor General of Canada.

History

First Nations settled the region 8,000-3,000 years ago.Kesteman, Jean-Pierre, ''Histoire de Sherbrooke Take I: l'âge de l'eau à l'ère of vapeur (1802-1866)'', ed. GGC, 2000, p.14 353. The Abenaki called it ''Ktinékétolékouac/Kchi Nikitawtegwak'' (The Large Forks), or ''Shacewanteku'' (where one smokes).

The first settler was the farmer Jean-Baptiste Nolain, in 1779. The area was first surveyed in 1792. Americans from Vermont built mills in the area in 1802. Gilbert Hyatt led a group of loyalists, who settled around 1803. He dammed the Magog River and a gristmill and a sawmill were soon built nearby. The settlement was then known as Hyatt's Mills. The first immigrants from England arrived in 1815.

The British American Land Company was formed in 1832 to acquire and develop almost of Crown land and other lands in the area. It prioritized speculation over immigration.

In 1852 a railway linked Montreal and Portland, Maine via Sherbrooke. By the 1890s there were rail connections to Boston, Halifax, and New York City.

Immigration from the rest of Quebec began in 1850, and by 1871 francophones were in the majority.

By the turn of the 20th century, Sherbrooke was a thriving industrial city, with manufacturing benefiting from locally-produced hydroelectricity. From the 1950s, some the steel and textile industries declined, giving way to government services and education.

As part of the 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec, the city grew considerably on 1 January 2002, with the amalgamation of Sherbrooke, Ascot, Bromptonville, Deauville, Fleurimont, Lennoxville, Rock Forest, and Saint-Élie-d'Orford. Part of Stoke was also annexed to the newly expanded Sherbrooke.

In 2012, a local Vitamin production factory suffered an explosion, which killed 2, and injured 19, some severely. A large toxic cloud enveloped part of the city, raising health concerns.

Geography

Located at the confluence of the Saint-François (St. Francis) and Magog rivers in the heart of the Eastern Townships and the administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of Quebec, coextensive with the city of Sherbrooke. Its geographical code is 43.

Climate

Sherbrooke has a humid continental climate ( Köppen ''Dfb''), with long, cold, and snowy winters, warm summers, and short but crisp springs and autumns. Highs range from in January to in July. In an average year, there are 34 nights at or colder than , and 6.5 nights at or colder than ; 4.1 days will see highs reaching . Annual snowfall is large, averaging at , sometimes falling in May and October. Precipitation is not sparse any time of the year, but is the greatest in summer and fall and at its least from January to April, totalling annually.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Sherbrooke was on 1 & 2 July 1931. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 15 January 2004.

Cityscape

Neighbourhoods

The city includes several neighbourhoods:

*''Le quartier universitaire''
*''Le Vieux-Nord''
*''Collinsville''
*''Secteur Galvin''
*''L'Est''
*''Ascot''
*''Mi-Vallon''
*''du Pin-Solitaire''
*''Le Petit Canada''

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Sherbrooke 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.

86.4% of Sherbrooke residents spoke French as a first language in 2021, while those whose mother tongue was English accounted for 3.9%. The next most common first languages were Spanish (2%), Arabic (1.3%) and Dari (0.7%)

As of 2021, approximately 88.7% of Sherbrooke residents were white, while 9.6% were visible minorities and 1.7% were aboriginal. The largest visible minority groups in Sherbrooke were Black (3.1%), Latin American (2%), Arab (1.7%), and West Asian (1%).

Census metropolitan area

The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) comprises the cities of Sherbrooke, Magog and Waterville, the municipalities of Ascot Corner, Compton, Saint-Denis-de-Brompton, Stoke and Val-Joli; the township municipalities of Hatley and Orford; and the village municipality of North Hatley. The population in 2021 was 227,398. The median age was 43.

Approximately 90.5% of the greater Sherbrooke area residents were white, while 7.7% were visible minorities and 1.8% were Aboriginal.

French was mother tongue to 87.3% of residents. The next most common mother tongues were English (4.5%), Spanish (1.6%), Arabic (1.0%) Dari (0.5%), Mandarin (0.2%), Portuguese (0.2%) and Serbian (0.2%).

About 55.7% of the population identified as Catholic in 2021 while 32.2% said they had no religious affiliation, 2.9% were Muslim, 0.5% Anglican, 0.5% Eastern Orthodox, 0.4% Jehovah's Witness and 0.4% Baptist. United Church and Pentecostals made up 0.3% of the population each while buddhist made 0.2%.

Economy

Sherbrooke, which is the economic centre of Estrie, is a significant cultural, industrial, and academic hub in the province. The city is directly served by two railways: the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad and the Canadian Pacific Railway. Sherbrooke is also served by four highways as well as the regional airport named Sherbrooke Airport but located in the nearby city of Cookshire-Eaton. Sherbrooke Airport no longer offers scheduled passenger services as of March 2010.

According to data from the '' Institut de la statistique du Québec'', average personal income per capita in the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) of Sherbrooke amounted to in 2010. Estrie's GDP for the same year was $.

;Largest employers
As of 2010, the largest employers in Sherbrooke are Université de Sherbrooke (6,000 employees), Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (5,511), Commission scolaire de la Région-de-Sherbrooke (3,050), Centre de santé et de services sociaux – Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Sherbrooke (2,650), City of Sherbrooke (1,913), Desjardins Group (1,713), Cégep de Sherbrooke