List of cities in Alberta facts for kids

A city in Alberta, Canada, is the highest type of local government for a town or community. To become a city, a community needs to have at least 10,000 people living there. Most of its buildings also need to be on smaller pieces of land. When a community meets these rules, it can ask the Alberta government to become a city.

Alberta has 19 cities. In 2021, over 3 million people lived in these cities combined. The biggest city in Alberta is Calgary, with more than 1.3 million people. The smallest city is Wetaskiwin, with about 12,500 people. Beaumont became Alberta's newest city on January 1, 2019.

Cities in Alberta are run by elected officials. There are 19 mayors and 138 councillors who help manage the cities. Many cities are close together in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region and the Calgary Metropolitan Region. For example, Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, Spruce Grove, and St. Albert are all cities near Edmonton. Airdrie, Calgary, and Chestermere are cities near Calgary.

Distribution of Alberta's 19 cities, 2 urban service areas and 10 towns that are eligible for city status.

How Cities Are Run

Every city in Alberta has an elected council that helps run things. A city council always has an odd number of members. This is so they can avoid tie votes when making decisions. One of these members is the city's main elected leader, called the mayor.

Most city councils have seven members, including the mayor. But a city can choose to have more or fewer members, as long as it's an odd number and not less than three. The mayor is chosen by all the voters in the city.

For the other council members, cities can use a "ward system." This means the city is divided into areas called wards. Each ward elects its own councillor. Wards are usually set up to have about the same number of people. If there's no ward system, all councillors are elected by everyone in the city, just like the mayor.

Everyone who can vote in a city election gets to choose their mayor and councillors. To run for mayor or councillor, a person must have lived in that city for at least six months. The last city elections in Alberta were held on October 18, 2021. The only exception is Lloydminster, which follows Saskatchewan's election schedule.

The Alberta government has a department called Alberta Municipal Affairs. This department helps coordinate all local governments, including cities.

Cities have many important jobs to do. They are in charge of things like public safety (police and fire), local buses and trains, roads, water services, and garbage collection. They also work with the province and other local areas on bigger projects like building major roads, schools, and health services.

Images for kids

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  Calgary (2015)

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  Edmonton (2019)

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  Lethbridge (2009)

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  Red Deer (2008)

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  St. Albert (2009)

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  Grande Prairie (2014)

Cities in Alberta

Here is a list of the cities in Alberta:

Past Cities

Alberta has had three other cities in its history that are no longer cities today.

• The Town of Strathcona became a city in 1907. But it later joined with Edmonton in 1912.
• Fort McMurray became a city in 1980. However, it changed back to an "urban service area" in 1995 when it joined with a larger district.
• The Town of Drumheller became a city in 1930. This was before the rule that a city needed 10,000 people. Drumheller changed back to a town in 1998 when it joined with the nearby Municipal District of Badlands No. 7.

Communities That Could Become Cities

Some towns in Alberta are big enough to become cities, but they haven't yet. These towns have populations over 10,000 people. They include Blackfalds, Canmore, Cochrane, High River, Morinville, Okotoks, Stony Plain, Strathmore, and Sylvan Lake. The Town of Hinton is also interested in becoming a city once its population reaches 10,000. In 2021, Hinton had 9,817 people.

Alberta also has two "urban service areas" that could become cities: Fort McMurray and Sherwood Park. As mentioned before, Fort McMurray used to be a city. Sherwood Park has always been a hamlet (a small community). In 1987, most people in Strathcona County voted to keep Sherwood Park and the rural parts of the county under one government.

See also

• List of census divisions of Alberta
• List of communities in Alberta
• List of hamlets in Alberta
• List of municipal districts in Alberta
• List of municipalities in Alberta
• List of population centres in Alberta
• List of summer villages in Alberta
• List of towns in Alberta
• List of villages in Alberta