About Ottawa

The capital city of Canada since 1857, Ottawa is Canada's fourth biggest city in population and the second biggest city in Ontario.  Commonly known as "Silicon Valley North" and "Canada's Tech Capital", Ottawa is an international technology hub home to such companies as Alcatel, Cisco, Adobe, Mitel and Huawei.

Canada's capital is known for its rich, British inspired architecture as seen in its Parliament buildings, and it's national museums.

With Canada being a member of the G8, the group of the world's most industrialized democracies, Ottawa is in good company as a G8 capital city along with Washington DC, London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Tokyo and Rome.

With humble beginnings as a small lumber town, Ottawa evolved into the political centre we see today.  Known primarily as a government town, Ottawa is on the verge of another transformation- metropolis.  With a population of 900,000 in 2010, an ever growing technology sector, and large infrastructure projects in the works, Ottawa is in the midst of a growth spurt and is becoming more of a player in Canada outside of the political arena.

Whether you are looking for a great place to study, do business or play, Ottawa has it all!

Quick Facts:
  • A population of over 1.2 million makes the Ottawa region the fourth-largest urban area in Canada
  • Ottawa is home to such high tech giants as Nortel Networks, Alcatel, Cognos, Tundra, Cisco, MDS Nordion and Entrust
  • Our technology companies are complemented by Dell, MBNA Canada, ING Direct, Clarica and MD Management
  • Ottawa is also the home of government organizations such as the Government of Canada, Parliament, the Senate, and the Supreme Court of Canada
  • More than 1,800 advanced technology companies employ more than 76,000 people
  • With the highest-educated workforce in Canada, Ottawa has more engineers, scientists and PhDs per capita than any other city in the country
  • $3.7 billion CDN in venture capital was invested in Ottawa technology companies from 2000 to 2005
  • With 90 per cent of Canada’s industrial telecommunications research and development conducted here, Ottawa is one of the world's top five sites for R&D
  • Canada's Capital region welcomes over 7.3 million visitors per year, who spend over $1.18 billion
  • According to Statistics Canada, families in Ottawa had the highest median incomes of any Canadian city in 2001
  • Mercer Human Resources International recently placed Ottawa 18th in a survey of 200 cities worldwide for best quality of life. Another study by Mercer found that Ottawa is the least expensive major city in which to live in North America.
  • Languages spoken include English (50%), French (32%) and a host of other languages including significant capabilities in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese and Arabic
(From Discover Ottawa- www.ottawa.com)