The city and its census metropolitan area had populations of 730,372 and 1,034,945 as of the 2006 Census respectively, making it the northernmost North American city with a metropolitan population over one million. The city's 2009 civic census showed a population of 782,439, while Statistics Canada estimated its metropolitan population at 1,155,383 in 2009, making it the sixth-largest metropolitan area in Canada. A resident of Edmonton is known as an Edmontonian.

The majority of Edmonton's metropolitan population lives within the City of Edmonton rather than in the surrounding suburban municipalities. Historically Edmonton was surrounded by few other urban municipalities (Strathcona, Beverly and Jasper Place, being the largest) and these were absorbed through amalgamation or annexation. Edmonton annexed a significant amount of land up until the early 1980s, and as such it has sustained much of the region's suburban growth within its own boundaries.

Edmonton serves as the northern anchor of the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor and is a staging point for large-scale oil sands projects occurring in northern Alberta and large-scale diamond mining operations in the Northwest Territories.^[10]

Edmonton is a cultural, governmental and educational centre. It plays host to a year-round slate of world-class festivals, earning it the title of "The Festival City."^[11] It is home to North America's largest mall, West Edmonton Mall (the world's largest mall from 1981 until 2004),^[12] and Fort Edmonton Park, Canada's largest living history museum.^[13] In 2004, Edmonton celebrated the centennial of its incorporation as a city.