Waterloo is a city in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. It is one of three cities in the

Regional Municipality of Waterloo The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Ontario, Cambridge, Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario, Waterl ...

(formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, but it is not considered to be part of the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...

(GTA). Due to the close proximity of the city of Kitchener to Waterloo, the two together are often referred to as "Kitchener–Waterloo", "K-W", or "The Twin Cities". While several unsuccessful attempts to combine the municipalities of Kitchener and Waterloo have been made, following the 1973 establishment of the Region of Waterloo, less motivation to do so existed, and as a result, Waterloo remains an independent city. At the time of the 2021 census, the population of Waterloo was 121,436.

History

Indigenous peoples and settlement

Indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

such as the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...

and Chonnonton lived in the area. After the end of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

Joseph Brant Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant (March 1743 – November 24, 1807) was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York and, later, Brantford, in what is today Ontario, who was closely associated with Great Britain du ...

, a Mohawk war chief, wanted Frederick Haldimand to give the Mohawk and Six Nations a tract of land surrounding the Grand River, in return for their loyalty to the British in the war. Haldimand's 1784 ''

Haldimand Proclamation The Haldimand Proclamation was a decree that granted land to the Mohawk (or Kanien'kehà:ka) (Mohawk nation) who had served on the British side during the American Revolution. The decree was issued by the Governor of the Province of Quebec, Fred ...

'' granted the land "six miles deep from either side of the rand Riverbeginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the very head of the said river." Haldimand, who had previously ordered for potential mill sites to be identified in the region, decreed in 1788 that mill sites would be included in the grant (which would not have been included otherwise). In 1796, Richard Beasley purchased Block Number 2 of the grant from

(on behalf of the Six Nations) with a mortgage held by the Six Nations. Block 2, 94,012 acres in size, was situated in the District of Gore. To meet his mortgage obligations, Beasley had to sell portions of the land to settlers. This was counter to the original mortgage agreement, but subsequent changes to the agreement were made to permit land sales.

Mennonites Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

counties Lancaster and Montgomery were the first wave of immigrants to the area. In the year 1800 alone, Beasley sold over 14,000 acres to Mennonite settlers. A group of 26 Mennonites from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, pooled their resources into the German Company of Pennsylvania, which was then represented by Daniel Erb and Samuel Bricker. The company purchased all the unsold land from Beasley in 1803, resulting in a discharge of the mortgage held by the Six Nations. This discharge allowed Beasley to clear his obligation with the Six Nations, and allowed the settlers to have deeds to their purchased land. The payment to Beasley, in cash, arrived from Pennsylvania in kegs, carried in a wagon surrounded by armed guards. Many of the pioneers who arrived from Pennsylvania after November 1803 bought land in a 60,000-acre tract of Block 2 from the German Company of Pennsylvania. The tract included almost two-thirds of Block 2. Many of the first farms were least 400 acres in size.

Development (19th century)

The Mennonites divided the land into smaller lots; two lots owned by Abraham Erb—who is often called the founder of the Village of Waterloo—became the central core of Waterloo. Erb had come to the area in 1806 from Pennsylvania. He had bought from the German Company Tract and settled where there was enough water power to operate mills. He founded a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

in 1808 and

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

in 1816; they saw business flourish. Other early settlers of what would become Waterloo included Samuel and Elia Schneider, who arrived in 1816. Until about 1820, settlements such as this were quite small. Erb also built what is now known as the Erb-Kumpf House in c. 1812, making it likely one of the oldest homes in Waterloo. The first school in what is now the City of Waterloo was built on land donated by Erb; the log building was constructed in 1820. A larger school house of stone was built in 1842 and was replaced with a brick school building in 1852. Over the decades, the log building was moved, eventually to

Waterloo Park Waterloo Park is an urban park situated in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada on land within Block 2 of the Haldimand Proclamation, Haldimand Tract. Spanning 44.9 hectares (111 acres) within the Uptown area of Waterloo, it opened in 1893 and is the ol ...

, where it still stands. The German spoken in Waterloo County is based upon the 18th century Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. In turn, the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect is based upon the dialect of German spoken in southwestern Germany. In 1816, the new Waterloo Township was officially incorporated while being named after

Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo (; ; ) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in Wallonia, located in the province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium, which in 2011 had a population of 29,706 and an area of . Waterloo lies a short distance south of Brussels, and immedia ...

, the site of the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...

(1815), which had ended the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

in Europe. After that war, the new township became a popular destination for German immigrants. By the 1840s, German settlers had overtaken the Mennonites as the dominant segment of the population. Many Germans settled in the small hamlet to the southeast of Waterloo. In their honour, the village was named Berlin in 1833 ( renamed to Kitchener in 1916). The first Catholic family to arrive were the Spetz family from Alsace who came in 1828. By 1831, Waterloo had a small post office in the King and Erb Street area, operated by Daniel Snyder, some 11 years before one would open in neighbouring Berlin. The ''Smith's Canadian Gazetteer'' of 1846 states that the Township of Waterloo (smaller than Waterloo County) consisted primarily of Pennsylvanian Mennonites and immigrants directly from Germany who had brought money with them. At the time, many did not speak English. There were eight grist and twenty sawmills in the township. In 1841, the population count was 4424. In 1846 the village of Waterloo had a population of 200, "mostly Germans". There was a grist mill and a sawmill and some tradesmen. By comparison, Berlin (Kitchener) had a population of about 400, also "mostly German", and more tradesmen than the village of Waterloo. Berlin was chosen as the site of the seat for the County of Waterloo in 1853. By 1869, the population was 2000. Waterloo was incorporated as a village in 1857 and became the Town of Waterloo in 1876. The

Kitchener Public Utilities Commission The Kitchener Public Utilities Commission (KPUC, or PUC) was the municipal public utilities commission for the city of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, as well as the surrounding area. Its former office in downtown Kitchener, constructed in 1931 in ...

began providing streetcar service in the region in 1888. In the 19th century, Waterloo was dominated by people of German origin with 76% of Waterloo residents in the 1911 census listing their family origins as being in Germany.

20th and 21st centuries

The Galt, Preston and Hespeler electric railway (later called the Grand River Railway) connected to Waterloo in 1911 and ended service in 1931. The Kitchener Public Utilities Commission stopped providing streetcar service in 1947, and were replaced by electric trolley coaches. Waterloo was incorporated as the City of Waterloo in 1948. The trolley coaches ended service in 1973. In 1911, a plan was mooted to pave King street. William Snider who owned the town square, did not want to pay the higher taxes, which would refused from paving King Street. Snider offered to deed the town square to town, which instead demanded he pay the higher taxes. Snider sold the town square to the Molson Bank, which up a Beaux Arts style bank on the site of the town square in 1914. In 1929, the H.V. McKay company of Australia proposed to open a factory for "one, man, self-propelled combine harvesters". The town provided the land for the factory from the Canada Barrels and Kegs and fixed the tax assessment at $25, 000 per year for the next 10 years in exchange for the factory being built.> In 1911, Waterloo Lutheran seminary, which later became Wilfrid Laurier University, was opened. On 5 May 1916, a group of soldiers sacked the German Acadian Club in Waterloo. In October 1918, Spanish flu reached Waterloo. Over 2, 000 people were "down with the malady". By November 1918, the Waterloo Chronicle reported that "twice as many had died from the influenza as had been killed in action in four years of war". The presence of the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

in the city caused technological and innovative companies to base in Waterloo, especially companies specializing in computing and

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

. For example,

Research in Motion BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian software company specializing in secure communications and the Internet of Things (IoT). Founded in 1984, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartpho ...

(now BlackBerry Limited), which developed

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

, was started by Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin in 1984. In 1965, the University of Waterloo was the second-largest private sector employer. The construction of the buildings for the University of Waterloo made the unemployment rate very low in the 1960s. By 1971, the population of Waterloo had grown 424% since 1945. Kitchener was a working class city while Waterloo was a middle class city. In 1981, the average annual household income in Kitchener was $26, 279 and in Waterloo was $31, 224. In 1950, Waterloo had 55 factories that employed 2, 572 people, in 1970 had 79 factories that employed $5, 483 workers, and in 1980 132 factories that employed 7, 314 workers. The founding of the universities led to the north-eastern area becoming developed as the new housing subdivisions were built while the area around Weber declined. The architecture of Waterloo changed from a more traditional

Victorian architecture Victorian architecture is a series of Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the st ...

style to favouring a more streamlined look, incorporating elements from architectural styles such as

Postmodern architecture Postmodern architecture is a style or movement which emerged in the 1960s as a reaction against the austerity, formality, and lack of variety of modern architecture, particularly in the International Style (architecture), international style adv ...

, which ultimately led to a movement to preserve Waterloo's historical core. A 1994 issue of the ''

Financial Post The ''Financial Post'' is a financial news website, and business section of the ''National Post'', both publications of the Postmedia Network. It started as an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the ...

'' mentioned Waterloo-based companies MKS,

WATCOM Watcom International Corporation was a software company, which was founded in 1981 by Wes Graham and Ian McPhee. Founding staff (Fred Crigger, Jack Schueler and McPhee) were formerly members of Professor Graham's Computer Systems Group at the Uni ...

, and

Open Text In semiotic analysis (the studies of signs or symbols), an open text is a text that allows multiple or mediated interpretation by the readers. In contrast, a closed text leads the reader to one intended interpretation. The concept of the "open ...

in a list of the top 100 independent software companies in Canada. In 1960, a study revealed 50% of the buying by Waterloo consumers was done in Kitchener, leading to the city to develop a retail district. In the 1980s, Waterloo came to have the character of a "post-industrial city". Mennonite farmers continued to come to Waterloo in their horse-powered buggies for shopping while the middle class people drove out to eat and drink at the numerous pubs and hotels out in the countryside. In June 2011, the Waterloo Region council approved the

Ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

: a

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

transit line connecting Conestoga Mall in north Waterloo and Fairview Park Mall in south Kitchener. Construction on the Ion began in August 2014. In 2016, two sections of a corduroy road were unearthed. One was in the King Street area of the business district and the second was discovered near the Conestoga Mall. The road was probably built by Mennonites using technology acquired in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, between the late 1790s and 1816. The log road was buried in about 1840 and a new road built on top of it. A historian explained that the road had been built for access to the mill but was also "one of the first roads cut through (the woods) so people could start settling the area". Ion service began in 2019 and experienced a daily ridership of 25,000 in November 2020.

Geography

Waterloo's city centre is near the intersection of

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

and Erb streets. The city centre was once along Albert Street, near the Marsland Centre and the Waterloo Public Library. The town hall, fire hall, and farmers' market were located there. Amidst some controversy, all were demolished between 1965 and 1969. Historically, Waterloo's swamp land near where the village was first developed caused problems for development. To mitigate these issues, sand was taken from nearby areas to raise the land; buildings were built on foundations of oak planks; and King Street was originally built as a corduroy road.

Waterways

The Grand River flows southward along the city's east side. Its most significant tributary within the city is Laurel Creek, whose source lies just to the west of the city limits and its mouth just to the east, and crosses much of the city's central areas, including the University of Waterloo lands and Waterloo Park; it flows under the uptown area in a culvert. In the city's west end, the Waterloo Moraine provides over 300,000 people in the region with drinking water. Much of the gently hilly Waterloo Moraine underlies existing developed areas. Ongoing urban growth, mostly low-density residential suburbs (in accordance with requests by land developers), will cover increasing amounts of the remaining undeveloped portions of the Waterloo Moraine.

Climate

Waterloo has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

of the warm summer subtype (''Dfb'' under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

) with warm, humid summers and cold winters. Compared to other parts of Canada, Waterloo has fairly moderate weather. Winter temperatures usually occur between mid-December and mid-March, while summer temperatures generally occur between mid-May and late September. It is not uncommon for temperatures to exceed 30 °C (86 °F) several times each summer. Waterloo has approximately 140 frost-free days per year.

Demographics

As of the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...

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 ...

, Waterloo has a population of , a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , the city has a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of . As of 2021, the median age is 36.0 years old, as compared to 37.7 in 2016. Waterloo's median age is 13% lower than Ontario's median age, which is 41.6 years old. At the

census metropolitan area The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of stat ...

(CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo CMA 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.

Ethnicity

The most common ethnic or cultural origins reported in Waterloo in 2021 were German (17.9%), English (17.0%), Scottish (14.6%), Irish (14.3%), Canadian (10.2%), Chinese (8.9%), Indian (6.4%), French (6.0%), British Isles (4.1%), Polish (4.1%), Dutch (3.9%), Italian (3.3%), and Ukrainian (2.4%). Indigenous people made up 1.3% of the population, mostly

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

(0.7%) and

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

(0.5%). Ethnocultural backgrounds in the city included European (63.7%),

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

(10.7%), Chinese (9.2%),

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

(3.1%),

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

(2.7%),

Latin American Latin Americans (; ) are the citizenship, citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their Latin American diaspora, diasporas are Metroethnicity, ...

(1.9%),

West Asian West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

(1.7%),

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

n (1.4%),

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

(1.4), and Filipino (1.0%). *Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.

Religion

In 2021, 45.8% of the population identified as

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, with

Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

(17.9%) making up the largest denomination, followed by

United Church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestantism, Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinc ...

(3.3%),

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

(3.2%),

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

(2.8%), Orthodox (2.4%), and other denominations. 37.7% of the population reported no religious affiliation. Others identified as

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

(8.1%),

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

(4.7%),

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

(1.2%),

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

(1.1%), and with other religions.

Language

English was the

mother tongue A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

of 64.6% of the population in 2021. This was followed by

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

(6.2%),

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

(2.2%),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

(1.5%),

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

(1.5%),

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

(1.3%), Punjabi (1.2%),

(1.1%),

Iranian Persian Iranian Persian (), Western Persian or Western Farsi, natively simply known as Persian (), refers to the Variety (linguistics), varieties of the New Persian, Persian language spoken in Iran and by others in neighboring countries, as well as by ...

(1.0%),

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

(1.0%),

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

(1.0%),

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

(0.9%), and French (0.9%). Of the official languages, 98.2% of the population reported knowing English and 8.8% French.

Economy

According to the

2016 Canadian Census The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census. ...

, Waterloo has a median household income (after tax) of $72,239. This is significantly higher than the national median of $61,348. The unemployment rate in Waterloo (6.9%) is lower than the national rate of 7.7%. The median value of a dwelling in Waterloo ($399,997) is higher than the national median of $341,556. The Intelligent Community Forum named Waterloo the Top Intelligent Community of 2007. Waterloo has a strong knowledge and service-based economy with significant insurance and high-tech sectors as well as two universities. The city's largest employers are

Sun Life Financial Sun Life Financial Inc. is a Canadian financial services company. It is primarily known as a life insurance company. Sun Life has a presence in investment management with over CAD$1.3 trillion in assets under management operating in a number ...

, the

, Manulife Financial,

, Sandvine and

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a Public university, public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Brantford, Ontario, Brantford and Milton, Ontario, Milton. The ...

Insurance

Before it became known for technology, Waterloo was sometimes referred to as "the

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

of Canada" because of the many insurance companies based in the area. Insurance companies founded in Waterloo include: * Waterloo Mutual Insurance (1863) – acquired by

Economical Insurance The Definity Insurance Company, operating as Economical Insurance, is a Canadian insurance company that has existed since 1871. Its executive offices are located in Waterloo, Ontario, with regional offices across Canada. The company has a 4.02% ...

in 1980 * North Waterloo Farmers Mutual Insurance (1874) – merged with Oxford Mutual in 2016 to form Heartland Farm Mutual * Mutual Life Assurance (1868) – acquired by Sun Life in 2002 * Mercantile Fire Insurance (1875) – acquired by London and Lancashire in 1896 and moved to Toronto * Dominion Life Assurance (1889) – acquired by

Manulife Manulife Financial Corporation (French language, French: Financière Manuvie) is a Canadian multinational insurance company and financial services provider headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company operates in Canada and Asia as "Manulife" ...

in 1985 * Equitable Life Insurance (1920) * Merchants Casualty Insurance Company (1924) – acquired by

in 1936 * Pilot Automobile and Accident Insurance (1927) – now a subsidiary of Aviva Canada * Canada Health and Accident Assurance Corporation (1945) – merged into CNA Assurance in 1972

Technology

The city is part of Canada's Technology Triangle (CTT), a joint economic development initiative of Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge and the Region of Waterloo that markets the region internationally. Despite its name, CTT does not focus exclusively on promoting technology industries, but on all aspects of economic development. Waterloo has a strong technology sector with hundreds of high-tech firms. The dominant technology company in the city is BlackBerry, makers of the

, which has its headquarters in the city and owns several office buildings near the University of Waterloo's main campus. Notable Waterloo-based high-tech companies include: * Aeryon Labs *

* Dalsa * Descartes Systems Group *

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

(in neighbouring Kitchener) * Kik Messenger (in neighbouring Kitchener) * Maplesoft * MKS Inc. *

ON Semiconductor ON Semiconductor Corporation (stylized and doing business as onsemi) is an American semiconductor supplier company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Products include power and signal management, logic, discrete, and custom devices for automotive, c ...

* OpenText Corporation * Sandvine * Vidyard Many other high-tech companies, with headquarters elsewhere, take advantage of the concentration of high-tech employees in the Waterloo area, and have research and development centres there.

Shopify Shopify Inc., stylized as ''shopify'', headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, operates an e-commerce platform for retail point-of-sale systems that offers payments, marketing, shipping, inventory management, transaction management, and customer eng ...

, SAP,

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American proprietary software company focused on online ...

NCR Corporation NCR Voyix Corporation, previously known as NCR Corporation and National Cash Register, is a global software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and Electronics, electronic products. It manufactured Self-c ...

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

and

Agfa Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Agfa) is a Belgian-German multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes Analog photography, analogue and digital imaging products, software, and systems. The company began as a dye manufacturer in 1867 ...

are among the large, international technology companies with development offices in Waterloo.

Education and research

Waterloo is home to two major universities, the

and

. The city is also home to three well-known think tanks – the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an advanced centre for the study of foundational, theoretical physics and award-winning educational outreach in science; the Institute for Quantum Computing, based at the University of Waterloo, which carries out innovative research in the computer, engineering, mathematical and physical sciences; and the

Centre for International Governance Innovation The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI, pronounced "see-jee") is an independent, non-partisan think tank on global governance. CIGI supports research, forms networks, advances policy debate and generates ideas for multilateral g ...

, an independent, nonpartisan think tank that addresses international governance challenges.

Distilling and brewing

Breweries and distilleries had been a significant industry in the Waterloo area until 1993 when a

Labatt Labatt Brewing Company Limited () is a Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned brewery headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1847, Labatt is the largest brewer in Canada. In 1995, it was purchased by Belgian brewer Interbrew. In 2004, Interb ...

-owned brewery was shut down. The Brick Brewing Company operated in Waterloo but is now based in Kitchener. Waterloo was the original home of distiller

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which trade name, traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational beverage and during the last few years of its existence, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. ...

(also the home town of many descendants of J.P. Seagram), which closed its Waterloo plant in 1992. Of the remaining Seagram buildings,

one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

became home of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), while others were converted into condominiums.

Other

The city encourages location filming of movies and TV series and many have taken advantage of Waterloo locations. Examples include '' Downsizing'' (released in 2017), ''The Demolisher'' (2015) and '' Degrassi: The Next Generation'' (2015).

Arts and culture

Kitchener–Waterloo Oktoberfest is a nine-day

Oktoberfest Oktoberfest (; ) is the world's largest , featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival, and is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, from mid- or late-September to the first Sunday in October. The annual event attracts more than seven milli ...

celebration held in both Kitchener and Waterloo. It is the second largest Oktoberfest celebration in the world, and the largest outside of Germany. In 2013,

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

reported that the festival receives over 700,000 annual visitors, has 1,780 volunteers, was broadcast to 1.8 million national television viewers, and generated an estimated $21 million of economic activity. Tri-Pride is a non-profit LGBT pride festival held annually during

Pride Month Pride Month, sometimes specified as LGBTQ Pride Month, is a List of month-long observances, month-long observance dedicated to the celebration of LGBTQ pride, commemorating the contributions of lesbian, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender a ...

in the "tri-cities" of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo. The Kitchener–Waterloo Symphony is located in Kitchener. According to their website, they perform over 222 concerts annually to an audience of over 90,000, both in the concert hall and across the Waterloo Region. The Waterloo Busker Carnival is a busking festival held annually in August in Waterloo public square. Admission is free, and the festival has been operating since 1989. The Rainbow Reels Queer and Trans Film Festival is an annual LBGT

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

which screens at Princess Twin Cinemas in Uptown Waterloo.

Inactive or past

The Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema was an annual

dedicated to feature-length animation films. It was held from 2001 to 2013. The

International Olympiad in Informatics The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) is an annual competitive programming competition and one of the International Science Olympiads Student competition, for secondary school students. The first IOI was held in 1989 in Pravetz, Bulgar ...

, a competitive programming competition for secondary school students, was held in Waterloo in 2010.

Attractions

Waterloo's local tourist attractions and areas of interest include: the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, the

Waterloo Central Railway The Waterloo Central Railway is a non-profit heritage railway owned and operated by the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society (SOLRS). In May 2007, SOLRS received joint approval from the Region of Waterloo and the City of Waterloo to r ...

, the City of Waterloo Museum, a statue of monkeys entitled "Banana", the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the

St. Jacobs Farmers' Market St. Jacobs Farmers' Market is a farmers' market and flea market in Woolwich, Ontario, Woolwich, Ontario, Canada. It is located to the south of Waterloo Regional Road 15, King Street North, to the east of Weber Street, Weber Street North, and to t ...

(although the market is just outside city limits),

's Earth Sciences Museum, and Conestoga Mall.

Recreation

Waterloo's parks and recreation facilities mainly comprise

, Bechtel Park, Laurel Creek Conservation Area, the

Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex The Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex is a recreation facility in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Father David Bauer Drive, west of Uptown. The complex contains the Sun Life Financial Arena, a 4,132-seat multi-purpose arena that ...

RIM Park RIM Park is a city park facility offering both outdoor and indoor amenities on the northeast side of the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, near the Eastbridge neighbourhood. Key facilities and features include the Manulife F ...

, and over of mixed-use trails.

Parks

Created in 1890,

is an

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...

in Uptown Waterloo which includes an animal farm, sports fields, and a splash pad. It is the oldest park in the city; the mixed-use Laurel Trail and the rapid transit

line both run through the park. Bechtel Park is located in eastern Waterloo, and houses a dog park, three soccer fields, a

field house Field house or fieldhouse is an American English term for an indoor sports arena or stadium, mostly used for college basketball, volleyball, or ice hockey, or a support building for various adjacent sports fields, e.g. locker room, team room, coac ...

, and more. Laurel Creek Conservation Area is in western Waterloo—north-west of

's Environmental Reserve—and houses 122 campsites, of trails, and facilities for

canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Europe, canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking, with a canoe being called an 'open canoe' or Canadian. A few of the recreational ...

, swimming,

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gain ...

, cycling, and

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, Windsurfing, windsurfer, or Kitesurfing, kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (Land sa ...

. The

, then described as the "largest and most expensive project in the city's history", opened in 1993. It includes an arena seating 3,500, swimming and banquet facilities, and an indoor track.

, originally called Millennium Park, opened in September 2001. Its features include outdoor soccer fields, ice rinks, baseball diamonds, basketball courts, meeting rooms and more. RIM Park is in proximity to the Walter Bean Grand River Trail, Grey Silo Golf Course, and Waterloo Public Library's Eastside Branch. There are a number of small playgrounds, woodlots, and recreation facilities around Waterloo which are not mentioned above due to their size.

Mixed-use trails

Trails for walking, hiking, and biking play an important part in Waterloo's recreational infrastructure. Waterloo had of trails by 2007, as compared to of trails in 1987. The Iron Horse Trail, connecting Waterloo and Kitchener, opened in 1997. Then-mayor Joan McKinnon brought upon the connection of the

Trans Canada Trail The Trans Canada Trail is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, Pacific to the Arctic Ocean, Arctic oceans. The trail extends over ; it is now the longe ...

into the Waterloo Region, which ran from the Iron Horse Trail to Waterloo's northern boundary. The Walter Bean Grand River Trail, announced in 1999, served to create an accessible trail along the Grand River. ''Waterloo: An Illustrated History, 1857–2007'' states, " he trailwas particularly needed in Waterloo as the river's geographic location on the edge of the city meant that, unlike so many other Canadian cities, the river had not historically played a central role in the community."

Sports

In July 2002, Waterloo, along with Kitchener, hosted the Ontario Summer Games. The following sports teams are based in Waterloo: Waterloo Wildfire ( National Ringette League), Waterloo Siskins ( Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League), Waterloo United ( League One Ontario),

Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, commonly shortened to Laurier Golden Hawks, is the name used by the varsity sports teams of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The university's varsity teams compete in the Ontario Universit ...

, and

Waterloo Warriors The Waterloo Warriors are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The Warriors have found success over certain spans in football, hockey, rugby, golf and basketball among others, ...

Government

Waterloo was part of Waterloo County until 1973 when a restructuring created the

, which consists of the cities of Waterloo, Kitchener, and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, and the townships of

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

, Wilmot, Wellesley, and

North Dumfries The Township of North Dumfries is a rural township in Ontario, Canada, part of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Communities North Dumfries includes the following communities: Ayr, Branchton, Clyde (formerly from Beverley Township, Wentw ...

. The Region handles many services, including paramedic services, policing, waste management, recreation, planning, roads and social services. The Waterloo Award, established in 1997, is the highest civic honour a person can receive from the City of Waterloo. Waterloo City Council consists of a mayor and seven councillors, each representing a

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

. The number of wards was increased from five to seven in the November 2006 elections. As of 2022, the mayor of Waterloo is Dorothy McCabe, elected in October 2022. The current Waterloo councillors are as follows, as of 2022, listed by ascending ward number: Sandra Hanmer (Southwest Ward), Royce Bodaly (Northwest Ward), Hans Roach (Lakeshore Ward), Diane Freeman (Northeast Ward), Jen Vasic (Southeast Ward), Mary Lou Roe (Central-Columbia Ward), and Julie Wright (Uptown Ward). In politics, Waterloo is within the federal

electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

of Waterloo, and within the provincial electoral district also named Waterloo.

Transportation

Roads

The controlled-access Highway 85, part of the larger Conestoga Parkway, is the only

provincial highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a state or ...

that runs through Waterloo. To the north, the divided freeway ends at the city limit, and the road becomes Waterloo Regional Road 85, which accesses St. Jacobs and Elmira, before ending in Elmira. To the south, Highway 85 becomes Highway 7 within Kitchener, before diverging into eastbound Highway 8 (to

Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian prov ...

interchange, and

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

) and westbound Highway 7/8 (to New Hamburg, Stratford, and Goderich). Highway 85 has 5 interchanges within Waterloo, from north to south, with the regional road number in brackets: King Street (15), Northfield Drive (50), King Street (15), University Avenue (57), and Bridgeport Road (9).

Public transport

Public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

throughout the Waterloo Region is provided by Grand River Transit (GRT), which provides service for various bus routes and the Ion rapid transit line. The Ion is a

line providing service to 19 stations, from Conestoga station ( Conestoga Mall in Waterloo) to Fairway station ( Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener). The line connects downtown Kitchener and uptown Waterloo. GRT operates local and express bus routes within Waterloo, with connections to Kitchener. Waterloo is served by GO buses which stop at the

and

, with destinations of Square One City Centre Terminal, Milton GO Station, and

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

Intercity rail

Region of Waterloo International Airport

Waterloo is not currently served by any regularly scheduled passenger rail service. The nearby Kitchener station is accessible from Waterloo through buses or a transfer from

's Kitchener Central Station. Kitchener station is serviced by the Kitchener line and the Corridor, operated by

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven mil ...

and

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...

respectively. Both services are infrequent. On weekdays, the

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

GO trains run eastbound (to Toronto) nine times per day, and westbound eight times per day. No Kitchener line trains are run on the weekends. Including weekends, Via Rail operates one train per day, both westbound and eastbound. The non-profit tourist railway

is a revival of the Waterloo-St. Jacobs Railway. It departs from the St. Jacobs Farmers Market and runs trains at 10 am, 12 pm, and 2 pm from April to November. The Waterloo Station continues to operate as a Visitor & Heritage Information Centre.

Air

The Region of Waterloo International Airport in nearby Breslau serves Waterloo and the surrounding region, although it is not heavily served by scheduled airlines. Most air travellers use Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport or

John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport , or simply Hamilton Airport, is an international airport in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The airport is part of the neighbourhood of Mount Hope, southwest of Downtown Hamilton and southwest of Tor ...

. As of 2022, the Region of Waterloo International Airport has year round flights to

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, Cancun,

Charlottetown Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County, Prince Edward Island, Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlott ...

, Deer Lake,

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Halifax,

Kelowna Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan, Okanagan Valley in the British Columbia Interior, southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, and

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

. The airport has seasonal flights to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. As of 2022, the airport's airlines are Flair Airlines, Pivot Airlines, and

WestJet WestJet Airlines, is a Canadian airline headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Founded in 1994, it is the second-largest airline in Canada and the eighth-largest airline in North America by frequency. It began operations in 1996 with 220 employee ...

Services

Health care

There are no hospitals in Waterloo, but neighbouring Kitchener has

Grand River Hospital Grand River Hospital is a hospital located in Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. The hospital operates two campuses, Kitchener-Waterloo Health Centre and Freeport Health Centre, which were independent hospitals that merged to form Gra ...

(which has a secondary site, the Freeport Campus) and St. Mary's General Hospital. Both were ranked highly for safety in a national comparison study in 2017–2018, but would benefit from reduced wait times. Long-term care beds are provided at numerous facilities. Grand River Hospital has a capacity of 574-beds; the Freeport location was merged into it in April 1995. St. Mary's General Hospital is a 150-bed adult acute-care facility and includes the Regional Cardiac Care Centre with two cardiovascular operating rooms, an eight-bed cardiovascular intensive care unit and 45 inpatient beds. Region of Waterloo Paramedic Services and Waterloo Fire Rescue respond to medical emergencies within the city of Waterloo. Region of Waterloo Paramedic Services may transport patients to either Grand River Hospital or St. Mary's General Hospital

emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the Acute (medicine), ...

s, depending on proximity, anticipated wait times and the type of emergency. Family doctors are often in short supply and a source of great concern among residents. Recruiting efforts over the previous 15 years achieved some success as of September 2018, but needed to be continued.

Libraries

The Waterloo Public Library was founded in 1888. As of 2022, the library has 4 branches (in order of opening): the Main Branch, the Albert McCormick Branch, the John M. Harper Branch and the Eastside Branch. The Eastside Branch, opened May 7, 2022, is the newest branch built. The $10-million library is built into the existing RIM Park Manulife Sportsplex and has around 35,000 books.

Fire protection

Fire protection and rescue services are provided by Waterloo Fire Rescue, a service of the City of Waterloo. As of 2020, there are four active fire stations in Waterloo. Waterloo Fire Rescue responds to fires, medical emergencies, car accidents and chemical incidents. (Region of Waterloo Paramedic Services also responds to medical emergencies.) When the two-tier regional government system was implemented in the early 1970s, police service was moved to the regional government, but fire service remained at the local municipality (city or township) level. From time to time, the media and interested parties raise the question of whether this service should remain at the city level, or whether there might be cost savings or service improvements if the various fire services were merged into regional fire service. A 2019 newspaper article stated that "there would likely be no cost savings, but service would improve under regionalized system," in the view of some former fire chiefs.

Policing

Waterloo Regional Police Service, the seventh-largest police service in the province of Ontario, provides general police service in the city of Waterloo. The Waterloo Regional Police North Division is located at 45 Columbia Street East, Waterloo. Waterloo Regional Police also serve the municipalities of Kitchener and Cambridge and the Townships of Wellesley, Wilmot, Woolwich and North Dumfries. City of Waterloo bylaws controlling matters such as parking, weeds and noise are enforced by city bylaw enforcement officers. The two universities each have special constables who are first responders to all emergencies at their respective university campuses. Special Constables may lay charges and/or make arrests under the same legal authority as police officers. As of 2019, University of Waterloo Police Service had twenty-four Special Constables. Wilfrid Laurier University also has a Special Constable Service. The Ontario Provincial Police patrols provincial highways. Two homicides were reported in the Waterloo Region in 2021, neither of which was in the city of Waterloo.

Education

The Waterloo Region District School Board is the region's public school board. As of 2022, in Waterloo, they run 21 elementary schools (see

List of Waterloo Region, Ontario schools A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...

) and three secondary schools, which are Bluevale Collegiate Institute, Laurel Heights Secondary School, and Waterloo Collegiate Institute. The Waterloo Catholic District School Board is the region's catholic school board. As of 2022, in Waterloo, they run 8 elementary schools and one secondary school, which is St. David Catholic Secondary School. There are a number of private and other schools not associated with the above boards, but there are no secondary schools in Waterloo unassociated with the boards. Waterloo is home to the following universities and colleges: the

St. Jerome's University St. Jerome's University (commonly shortened to St. Jerome's or SJU) is a public Roman Catholic university in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is federated with the University of Waterloo. St. Jerome's, within the University of Waterloo, combines ac ...

, St. Paul's University College, Conrad Grebel University College, Renison University College, and Conestoga College (based in Kitchener but has a Waterloo campus). The University of Waterloo is a

public research university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

that saw 37,884 students in 2022. The university has the largest post-secondary co-op program in the world and ranked 151–200 in the world and 7–8 in Canada in the 2021

Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...

. Wilfrid Laurier University saw about 20,000 students in 2022, including its campuses in

Brantford Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully indep ...

and Milton.

Media

The ''

Waterloo Region Record The ''Waterloo Region Record'' (formerly ''The Record'') is the daily newspaper covering Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario, Water ...

'' is a daily newspaper that covers the Region of Waterloo, while the ''Waterloo Chronicle'' covers the city; both are published by Metroland Media Group. There are a number of FM radio stations that reach Waterloo, (see Media in Waterloo Region#Radio) although CKMS-FM is the only to broadcast out of the city. CKGL (570 News) is the only AM radio station broadcasting from the Region.

CKCO-DT CKCO-DT (channel 13) is a television station in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside London-based CTV 2 station CFPL-DT (channel 10), although the two ...

( CTV Kitchener) is the only television station that broadcasts from the Region.

Notable people

* Walter Bowman (born 1870), First non-British player to play in the English Football League. * Lorna Geddes (born 1943), ballerina with National Ballet of Canada * Nate Haller, country musician/singer * Julie Karn (born 1996), soccer player * Geoff Ward (born 1962), ice hockey coach

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* * {{Authority control Cities in Ontario German diaspora in Canada High-technology business districts in Canada Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario Mennonitism in Ontario Populated places established in 1857 1857 establishments in Canada West