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city in Estrie, Quebec, Canada
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Sherbrooke ( SHUR-bruuk, Quebec French: [ʃɛʁˈbʁʊk]) 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.
First Nations settled the region between 8,000 and 3,000 years ago. The Abenaki called it Ktinékétolékouac/Kchi Nikitawtegwak ('the large forks'), or Shacewanteku (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 1,100,000 acres (1,719 sq mi; 4,452 km2) 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.
Located at the confluence of the Saint-François (St. Francis) and Magog rivers in the heart of the Eastern Townships and the Estrie 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.
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 −5.8 °C (21.6 °F) in January to 24.6 °C (76.3 °F) in July. In an average year, there are 34 nights at or colder than −20 °C (−4 °F), and 6.5 nights at or colder than −30 °C (−22 °F); 4.1 days will see highs reaching 30 °C (86 °F). Annual snowfall is large, averaging at 287 centimetres (113 in), 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 1,100 millimetres (43.3 in) annually.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Sherbrooke was 36.7 °C (98 °F) on 1 and 2 July 1931. The coldest temperature ever recorded was −41.2 °C (−42.2 °F) on 15 January 2004.
The city includes several neighbourhoods:
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Sherbrooke had a population of 172,950 living in 80,476 of its 86,019 total private dwellings, a change of 7.2% from its 2016 population of 161,323. With a land area of 353.4 km2 (136.4 sq mi), it had a population density of 489.4/km2 (1,267.5/sq mi) in 2021.
Canada census – Sherbrooke community profile
References: 2021 2016 2011
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%).
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%).
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%.
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 CA$30,976 in 2010. Estrie's GDP for the same year was $9.59 billion.
The hockey equipment manufacturer Sherwood was founded in Sherbrooke in 1949. The city is also home to the hockey puck manufacturer Inglasco.
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.
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.
The Sherbrooke Expos of the Ligue de Baseball Majeur du Québec, an amateur baseball league, play their home games at Amedée Roy Stadium.
The city also hosted some games of the 2002 World Junior Baseball Championship, and the 2013 Canada Games.
Historically, several professional teams based in Sherbrooke competed in Minor League Baseball or in independent baseball leagues:
The Sherbrooke Phoenix is a junior hockey team playing in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
The Sherbrooke Canadiens competed in the American Hockey League from 1984 to 1990.
Sherbrooke is the seat of the judicial district of Saint-François.
Local governance is provided by the Sherbrooke City Council. The mayor is Marie-Claude Bibeau.
Under the 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec, Sherbrooke merged with most of the suburban municipalities in the surrounding area: Rock Forest, Saint-Élie-d'Orford, Deauville, Fleurimont, Bromptonville, Ascot, and Lennoxville. This resulted in the creation of six Boroughs of Sherbrooke: Brompton, Fleurimont, Lennoxville, Mont-Bellevue, Rock Forest–Saint-Élie–Deauville, and Jacques-Cartier. Each of the boroughs is subdivided into electoral districts, with the number varying based on population. For example, there are only two districts in Brompton, which only has 6,314 inhabitants, whereas Fleurimont (pop. 40,824) has five. Sherbrooke has 21 districts total, for which the average population is 7,200 inhabitants.
Sherbrooke is split into the federal electoral districts of Sherbrooke, represented by Élisabeth Brière of the Liberal party of Canada and Compton—Stanstead, represented by Marie-Claude Bibeau of the Liberals.
Provincially, Sherbrooke is divided into three electoral districts. Sherbrooke is represented by Christine Labrie of the Québec solidaire (QS), Saint-François is represented by Guy Hardy of the PLQ and Richmond is represented by Karine Vallières of the PLQ.
In 2007, the crime rate was 5,491 per 100,000.
Sherbrooke does not host any units from the Regular Force with the exception of a recruiting centre, but four Primary Reserve units are stationed in the city:
Text from the Wikipedia article “Sherbrooke”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.