Saskatoon () is the largest city in the
Canadian province of
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...
. It straddles a bend in the
South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the
Trans-Canada
The Trans-Canada Highway (French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on ...
Yellowhead Highway, and has served as the cultural and economic hub of central Saskatchewan since its founding in 1882 as a
Temperance colony.
With a
2021 census population of 266,141, Saskatoon is the
largest city in the province, and the
17th largest Census Metropolitan Area in Canada, with a 2021 census population of 317,480.
Saskatoon is home to the
University of Saskatchewan
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
, the
Meewasin Valley Authority (which protects the South Saskatchewan River and provides for the city's popular riverbank park spaces), and
Wanuskewin Heritage Park (a
National Historic Site of Canada and
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...
World Heritage applicant representing 6,000 years of
First Nations history). The