Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. The city is coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of the same name. With 172,950 residents at the Canada 2021 Census, it is the sixth-largest city in the province and the 30th-largest in Canada. The Sherbrooke Census Metropolitan Area had 227,398 inhabitants, making it the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Quebec and 19th in Canada.
Sherbrooke is the primary economic, political, cultural, and institutional centre of Estrie, and was given its nickname as the Queen of the Eastern Townships at the beginning of the 20th century.
There are eight educational institutions in the city educating 40,000 students and employing 11,000 people, 3,700 of whom are professors, teachers and researchers. The direct economic effect of these institutions exceeds one billion dollars. The proportion of university students is 10.32 students per 100 inhabitants, giving Sherbrooke the largest concentration of students in Quebec.
Sherbrooke rose as a manufacturing centre in the 1800s, and today the service sector is prominent.
The Sherbrooke region is surrounded by mountains, rivers, and lakes. There are several ski hills nearby and various regional tourist attractions. Mont-Bellevue Park, a large park in the city, is used for downhill skiing.
The city was named in 1818 for John Coape Sherbrooke, a governor general of British North America.
History
First Nations settled the region between 8,000 and 3,000 years ago.Kesteman, Jean-Pierre, Histoire de Sherbrooke Take I: l'âge de l'eau à l'ère of vapeur (1802-1866), ed. GGC, 2000, p.14 353. The Abenaki called it / ('the large forks'), or (where one smokes).
The first non-native settler was the farmer Jean-Baptiste Nolain, in 1779. The area was first surveyed in 1792. Americans from Vermont built mills in the area in 1802. Gilbert Hyatt led a group of loyalists, who settled around 1803. He dammed the Magog River and a gristmill and a sawmill were soon built nearby. The settlement was then known as Hyatt's Mills.
The first immigrants from England arrived in 1815. The British American Land Company was formed in 1832 to acquire and develop almost of Crown land and other lands in the area. It prioritized speculation over immigration.
In 1852 a railway linked Montreal and Portland, Maine via Sherbrooke. By the 1890s, there were rail connections to Boston, Halifax, and New York City.
Immigration from the rest of Quebec began in 1850, and by 1871 francophones were in the majority.
By the turn of the 20th century, Sherbrooke was a thriving industrial city, with manufacturing benefiting from locally-produced hydroelectricity. From the 1950s, some the steel and textile industries declined, giving way to government services and education.
As part of the 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec, the city grew considerably on 1 January 2002, when it absorbed Ascot, Bromptonville, Deauville, Fleurimont, Lennoxville, Rock Forest, and Saint-Élie-d'Orford. Part of Stoke was also annexed to the newly expanded Sherbrooke.
In 2012, a local biochemical factory suffered an explosion, which killed 2, and injured 19, some severely. A large toxic cloud enveloped part of the city, raising health concerns.
Geography
Located at the confluence of the Saint-François (St. Francis) and Magog rivers in the heart of the Eastern Townships and the administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of Quebec, coextensive with the city of Sherbrooke. Its geographical code is 43.
Climate Sherbrooke has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), with long, cold, and snowy winters, warm summers, and short but crisp springs and autumns. Highs range from in January to in July. In an average year, there are 34 nights at or colder than , and 6.5 nights at or colder than ; 4.1 days will see highs reaching . Annual snowfall is large, averaging at , sometimes falling in May and October. Precipitation is not sparse any time of the year, but is the greatest in summer and fall and at its least from January to April, totalling annually.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Sherbrooke was on 1 & 2 July 1931. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 15 January 2004.
Neighbourhoods The city includes several neighbourhoods:
Le quartier universitaire Le Vieux-Nord Collinsville Secteur Galvin L'Est Ascot Mi-Vallon du Pin-Solitaire Le Petit Canada
Demographics City of Sherbrooke
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Sherbrooke had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Language As of 2021, 86.4% of Sherbrooke residents spoke French as a first language, while those whose mother tongue was English accounted for 3.9%. The next most common first languages were Spanish (2%), Arabic (1.3%), Dari (0.7%), Serbian (0.3%), Portuguese (0.2%) and Mandarin (0.2%).
Ethnicity As of 2021, approximately 88.7% of Sherbrooke residents were white, while 9.6% were visible minorities and 1.7% were Indigenous. The largest visible minority groups in Sherbrooke were black (3.1%), Latin American (2%), Arab (1.7%), and West Asian (1%). + Panethnic groups in the City of Sherbrooke (2001−2021)Panethnicgroup20212016201120062001 White 148,235 143,110 140,695 137,040 70,625 Black 5,215 3,515 2,530 1,780 745 Middle Eastern 4,530 3,235 1,825 1,410 590 Latin American 3,410 2,705 2,110 2,005 690 Indigenous 2,820 1,720 1,345 865 140 East Asian 965 655 475 620 105 Southeast Asian 760 530 605 390 260 South Asian 710 450 455 310 85 Other/multiracial 540 340 210 170 40 Total responses 167,180 156,260 150,255 144,595 73,285 Total population 172,950 161,323 154,601 147,427 75,916 +Ethnic origin (2021)Ethnic originPopulationPercentCanadian57,94534.6French43,52526.0Québécois21,10012.6Irish8,4005.0North American Aboriginal7,6054.5English4,5702.7Scottish3,2451.9Italian2,7901.6German2,3051.3
Sherbrooke CMA The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) comprises the cities of Sherbrooke, Magog and Waterville, the municipalities of Ascot Corner, Compton, Saint-Denis-de-Brompton, Stoke and Val-Joli; the township municipalities of Hatley and Orford; and the village municipality of North Hatley. The population in 2021 was 227,398. The median age was 43.
Approximately 90.5% of the greater Sherbrooke area residents were white, while 7.7% were visible minorities and 1.8% were Aboriginal.
French was mother tongue to 87.3% of residents. The next most common mother tongues were English (4.5%), Spanish (1.6%), Arabic (1.0%) Dari (0.5%), Mandarin (0.2%), Portuguese (0.2%) and Serbian (0.2%).
About 55.7% of the population identified as Catholic in 2021 while 32.2% said they had no religious affiliation, 2.9% were Muslim, 0.5% Anglican, 0.5% Eastern Orthodox, 0.4% Jehovah's Witness and 0.4% Baptist. United Church and Pentecostals made up 0.3% of the population each while Buddhists were at 0.2%.
Economy
Sherbrooke, which is the economic centre of Estrie, is a significant cultural, industrial, and academic hub in the province. The city is directly served by two railways: the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad and the Canadian Pacific Railway. Sherbrooke is also served by four highways as well as the regional airport named Sherbrooke Airport but located in the nearby city of Cookshire-Eaton. Sherbrooke Airport no longer offers scheduled passenger services as of March 2010.
According to data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec, average personal income per capita in the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) of Sherbrooke amounted to in 2010. Estrie's GDP for the same year was $.
The hockey equipment manufacturer Sherwood was founded in Sherbrooke in 1949. The city is also home to the hockey puck manufacturer Inglasco.
Largest employers As of 2010, the largest employers in Sherbrooke are Université de Sherbrooke (6,000 employees), Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (5,511), Commission scolaire de la Région-de-Sherbrooke (3,050), Centre de santé et de services sociaux – Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Sherbrooke (2,650), City of Sherbrooke (1,913), Desjardins Group (1,713), Cégep de Sherbrooke (800), Centre Jeunesse de l'Estrie (527), Nordia Inc. (500), Canada Post (497), Kruger Inc. - Publication papers business unit (455), Bishop's University (450) and McDonald's (400). These include enterprises operating in Sherbrooke only and having 400 or more employees.
Arts and culture In the summer season, several festivals, concerts, and events are held in the city, such as the Fête du Lac des Nations, Sherblues & Folk, and the Festival des traditions du monde. Come winter, the city hosts the Carnaval de Sherbrooke.
The city has British architectural heritage, as seen in the buildings in Vieux-Nord.
Sherbrooke has the fourth-largest theatre in Quebec, the Maurice O'Bready University Cultural Centre of Sherbrooke (Salle Maurice-O'bready du centre culturel de l'Université de Sherbrooke). Music, theatre, and dance shows are staged there. The Centennial Theatre of Bishop's University also hosts music and dance concerts from around the world. The Vieux Clocher, owned by the Université de Sherbrooke, has two stages, the primary being used by various music groups and comedians from around the province. The Théâtre Granada, designated as a historical site by the Canadian government, holds music concerts. It has retained its original architecture since its opening. The Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke, located downtown, presents musicals and plays for children.
Since 2007, the Centre des arts de la scène Jean-Besré (CASJB), built by the city with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Communications, has assisted in the creation and production of material for the region's artistic community. It serves as the location for training theatre, music, and dance professionals. It contains three rehearsal studios, a production room, a decoration workshop, and a costume workshop, as well as administrative offices for each of its resident companies.
Auditoriums
Salle Maurice-O'Bready Granada Theatre Centennial Theatre Vieux Clocher Le Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke Théâtre Léonard Saint-Laurent Salle Alfred-Des Rochers
Libraries La bibliothèque municipale Éva-Senécal, the main city library (opened 22 December 1990), is named for Éva Senécal (1905-1988), poet, novelist and journalist. La bibliothèque du secteur de Rock Forest La bibliothèque du secteur de Saint-Élie La bibliothèque Gisèle-Bergeron La bibliothèque de Lennoxville, at the intersection of rue Queen and rue College, near Bishop's University, offers a book lending service in French and English.
Attractions
Museums and visitors' centres Sherbrooke Nature and Science Museum Centre d'interprétation de l'histoire de Sherbrooke Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts Centre culturel et du patrimoine Uplands Art gallery at the Centre Culturel of Sherbrooke University Centre d'art actuel Sporobole Prison Winter
Parks Johnville Bog & Forest Park Forêt jardinée de l'aéroport de Sherbrooke Sherbrooke has parks and greenspaces that encompass a variety of recreational activities. In total, there are 108 in the municipality. Parks Jacques-Cartier, Mont Bellevue, Bois Beckett, Lucien-Blanchard, Central, Quintal, Victoria, and Marais Réal-D.-Carbonneau are among the most popular destinations. Jacques-Cartier Park