The city of Laval, conglomerated from 14 smaller municipalities in 2000, covers the island Île Jésus and some smaller islands to the northwest of Montreal. Largely rural, the city's main population center is on the highway 15 corridor and its southeast coast, which faces Montreal across the Rivière des Prairies.



Laval (pronounced ]) is a city, a regional county municipality and a region in southwestern Quebec, Canada in the Greater Montreal Area. It is located on Île Jésus, across the Rivière des Prairies from Montreal. It also includes the Îles Laval in the Rivière des Prairies. In 2006, the city had a population of 368,709 Laval constitutes one of the 17 administrative regions of Quebec; its number is 13.

Geography

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The island is still rural in nature, with most of the urban area in the central region and along the south and west river banks.

Laval is bounded on the south and east by Montreal, on the north by MRC des Moulins and on the west by MRC de Thérèse-De Blainville and MRC de Deux-Montagnes.

Demographics

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Laval is the 4th largest suburb in North America after Mississauga, Ontario; Mesa, Arizona and Surrey, British Columbia.

In 2001, the population of Laval was an estimated 343,005, a 3.8 percent increase from the earlier census in 1996. Women constitute 51.44% of the total population. Children under 14 years of age total 18.6%, while those of retirement age (65 years of age and older) number 13.2% resulting in a median age of 38.7 years.

In Laval, 15.48% of the population was born outside of Canada, substantially lower than the national average, many immigrants hailing from the French Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. Those of indigenous origin constitute 0.22%, while those who are visible minorities (non-white/European) number 8.68%, and are chiefly Black Canadian, Arab, and Hispanic. Comparing to neighbouring Montreal, the linguistics of Laval is more homogenous as 73.42% speak French, 6.05% speak English, 0.84% are bilingual in French and English, and 19.69% speak languages other than Canada's official languages (English and French) such as Greek, Italian, Armenian, Arabic and Portuguese.

As with many parts of Quebec, the city is highly Christian (90.71%), particularly Roman Catholic (81.09%), while Protestant and Orthodox groups constitute the remainder of the population. Religions such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and others number less than 5% combined.

History

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Laval was originally inhabited by Mohawks before the French arrived. The first European Settlers were Jesuits in 1636 when they were granted a seigneury there. Agriculture first appeared in Laval in 1670. In 1675, François de Montmorency-Laval gained control of the seigneury. In 1702 a parish was founded, and dedicated to Saint-François de Sales. The first municipalities on the island were created in 1845, after nearly 200 years of a rural nature. The only built-up area on the island, Sainte-Rose, was incorporated as a village in 1850, and remained as the main community for the remainder of the century. With the dawn of the 20th century came urbanization. Laval-des-Rapides became Laval's...