In 2016, the city had a population of 1,704,694,
[9] with a population of 1,942,044 in the
urban agglomeration, including all of the other
municipalities on the
Island of Montreal.
[9] The broader
metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927.
[11] French is the city's official language
[19][20] and is the language spoken at home by 49.8% of the population of the city, followed by
English at 22.8% and 18.3% other languages (in the 2016 census, not including multi-language responses).
[9] In the larger
Montreal Census Metropolitan Area, 65.8% of the population speaks French at home, compared to 15.3% who speak English.
[11] The agglomeration Montreal is one of the most
bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with over 59% of the population able to speak both English and French.
[9] Montreal is the second largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, after
Paris.
[21][22][23][24] It is situated 258 kilometres (160 mi) south-west of
Quebec City.
Historically the commercial capital of Canada, Montreal was surpassed in population and in economic strength by
Toronto in the 1970s.
[25] It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, transport, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, art, culture, tourism, food, fashion, gaming, film, and world affairs. Montreal has the second-highest number of consulates in North America,
[26] serves as the location of the headquarters of the
International Civil Aviation Organization, and was named a
UNESCO City of Design in 2006.
[27][28] In 2017, Montreal was ranked the 12th most liveable city in the world by the
Economist Intelligence Unit in its annual
Global Liveability Ranking,
[29] and the best city in the world to be a university student in the
QS World University Rankings.
[30]