Short answers, pulled from the story.
Toronto had a census population of 2,794,356 as of 2021. By 2024, its population surged to an estimated 3.28 million, a 17 per cent increase from the 2021 figure. The Greater Toronto Area reached 6,712,341 people, and the Toronto census metropolitan area had 7,106,379.
Toronto is considered one of the most multicultural cities in the world because about half of its residents were born outside Canada and over 200 ethnic origins are represented among its inhabitants. Over 160 languages are spoken in the city. According to the United Nations Development Programme, Toronto has the second-highest percentage of constant foreign-born population among world cities, behind Miami, Florida.
The name Toronto derives from the Mohawk word "tkaronto," meaning "where there are trees standing in the water," recorded as early as 1615 by Samuel de Champlain. It originally referred to a narrows where the Wendat planted tree saplings to corral fish, at the site now known as the Mnjikaning Fish Weirs near Orillia. The word Toronto, meaning "plenty," also appears in a 1632 French lexicon of the Wendat language.
The town was founded as York in 1793 by Governor John Graves Simcoe, who named it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. York was incorporated as the City of Toronto on the 6th of March 1834, reclaiming the Indigenous name. The city became the capital of the province of Ontario in 1867 during Canadian Confederation.
On the 1st of January 1998, the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and its six lower-tier municipalities, East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York, and the original City of Toronto, were dissolved and merged into a single-tier City of Toronto. A March 1997 referendum produced a vote of more than 3 to 1 against the merger, but the Progressive Conservative provincial government under Premier Mike Harris proceeded regardless. North York mayor Mel Lastman became the first megacity mayor, the 62nd mayor of Toronto.
The CN Tower was completed in 1976 at a height of 553.33 m. It was the world's tallest freestanding structure until 2007, when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The tower serves as a telecommunications and tourism hub and remains a defining feature of the Toronto skyline.