Calgary

People have lived in the Calgary area for at least 11,000 years. It is the territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy — the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani — the Nakoda and the Tsuut'ina, and of Métis communities. In 1787 the Hudson's Bay Company cartographer David Thompson wintered with a Piikani band on the Bow River. In 1875 the North-West Mounted Police built a post at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers to stop American whisky traders; first called Fort Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876. Treaty 7 followed in 1877, and federal grazing leases from 1881 brought the ranchers.

The Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in August 1883 and built its station west of the Elbow, across the river from the first townsite, and Calgary was incorporated as a town in 1884. The first Calgary Stampede was held in 1912. The Turner Valley oil discovery of 1914 set off a speculative frenzy, and although the Leduc strike of 1947 brought growth to Edmonton, oil companies kept their offices in Calgary; by 1967 it had more millionaires than any other Canadian city. The 1970s boom filled downtown with towers, and the 1980s collapse in oil prices and the National Energy Program brought a deep recession, eased by the 1988 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Games held in Canada.

The Canadian Pacific moved its head office here from Montreal in 1996. In June 2013 floods on the Bow and Elbow forced more than 75,000 residents from their homes and cut power to downtown, part of what was then Canada's costliest disaster in insured damages. A decade of slow growth and an oil downturn in 2014–16 followed. Since 2021 the city has grown fast, and ruptures of its main water feeder pipe in 2024 and December 2025 brought emergency water restrictions.

Calgary's identity is tied to the Stampede. Known as Cowtown and the Stampede City, it spends ten days each July in western wear, with a parade, rodeo and chuckwagon races at Stampede Park and free pancake breakfasts in car parks and offices across the city. The event draws over a million visitors and is one of Canada's largest festivals, though its rodeo and chuckwagon events face growing criticism from animal-welfare campaigners. The Canadian Football League team is named the Stampeders.

Sport runs deep. The Flames arrived from Atlanta in 1980, and their rivalry with the Edmonton Oilers is the heart of the Battle of Alberta; during the 2004 playoff run tens of thousands of fans filled 17 Avenue SW, nicknamed the Red Mile. The 1988 Olympics left Canada Olympic Park and the Olympic Oval, still used for training and recreation.

The city was named one of Canada's cultural capitals in 2012. It has a philharmonic orchestra, an international piano competition, the National Music Centre, a folk festival on Prince's Island and a busy film and festival calendar. A third of Calgarians were born outside Canada, and South Asian, Chinese and Filipino communities are the largest of many, from Chinatown to International Avenue in the east.

The 2021 census counted about 1.3 million people in the city and about 1.5 million in the metropolitan area; growth since then has been rapid, with the metropolitan population estimated at about 1.8 million in 2025, fed by migrants from other provinces drawn by cheaper housing. In 2025 Calgary led Canadian cities in new housing starts, most of them apartments.

Energy is still central to the economy, and Calgary has more corporate head offices per person than any other Canadian city, from oil and gas producers to the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway and WestJet. Finance, logistics, technology, film and television and health care have grown alongside them, and booms and busts in oil prices still shape jobs and office vacancy.

Many Calgarians live in suburbs spread across more than 180 neighbourhoods, though the Beltline, Kensington, Inglewood and Mission have grown denser. Office workers ride the CTrain downtown, and in summer residents cycle and walk the 800 km of river pathways or head west to the mountains at weekends. Since 2025 the city has had municipal political parties, and Jeromy Farkas was elected mayor that year.

Beef is the foundation of Calgary's table, as of Alberta's: steak houses across the city, prime rib dinners and barbecue at Stampede time, and pancakes with sausages at the free Stampede breakfasts. Two dishes known across Canada began here. Ginger beef — deep-fried strips of beef in a dark, sweet sauce with ginger, garlic and hot peppers — is generally credited to chef George Wong at a Calgary restaurant in the mid-1970s and is now a familiar Canadian Chinese dish. The Caesar, a cocktail of vodka, clam and tomato juice, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce in a celery-salt-rimmed glass, was invented in 1969 by Walter Chell, a restaurant manager at the Calgary Inn, and within five years was the city's most popular mixed drink.

Calgary's restaurant streets are concentrated in the centre: 17 Avenue SW in the Beltline, 4th Street SW in Mission and Stephen Avenue downtown are lined with restaurants, while Kensington and Inglewood mix cafés, pubs and bistros. Chinatown and the Asian restaurants along Centre Street north of the river reflect the city's immigrant communities.

Farmers' markets, among them the Calgary Farmers' Market and Crossroads Market in the south-east, sell Alberta produce. Saskatoon berries go into pies and jams, Ukrainian perogies and cabbage rolls are prairie staples, and the city has a growing number of craft breweries.