Alma (; 2021 Town population: 30,331; UA Population 20,274) is a town in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, in the Canadian province of Quebec.

History

The present town of Alma was formed in 1962 from the merging of four villages: Isle-Maligne, Naudville, Riverbend and St-Joseph d'Alma. In 2002, Alma merged with the Municipality of Delisle. The oldest of the villages, St-Joseph-d'Alma, was founded in 1867 by Damase Boulanger. Both modern day Alma and St-Joseph d'Alma are named after the Battle of the Alma.

The area became an important industrial centre during the 1920s and 1930s with the construction of a hydro-electrical power station on the Grande-Décharge River, a paper mill (Price) and an aluminum smelting plant (Alcan), all of which are still in activity today.

Geography

Alma is located on the southeast coast of Lac Saint-Jean where it flows into the Saguenay River, in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, approximately 175 km north of Quebec City. Alma is the seat of Lac-Saint-Jean-Est Regional County Municipality. Alma is the second largest city in population in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region after the city of Saguenay.

Alma is the seat of the judicial district of Alma.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Alma 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.

Population trend:

  • Population in 2021: 30,331
  • Population in 2016: 30,771
  • Population in 2011: 30,904
  • Population in 2006: 29,998
  • Population in 2001: 25,918
  • Population in 1996: 26,127
  • Population in 1991: 25,910
  • Population in 1986: 25,923
  • Population in 1981: 26,322
  • Population in 1976: 25,638
  • Population in 1971: 24,956
  • Population in 1966: 22,195
  • Population in 1961: 13,309
  • Population in 1956: 10,822
  • Population in 1951: 7,975
  • Population in 1941: 6,449
  • Population in 1931: 3,970
  • Population in 1921: 850

Mother tongue:

  • English as first language: 0.4%
  • French as first language: 98.5%
  • English and French as first language: 0.3%
  • Other as first language: 0.7%

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! colspan=4 | Visible minority and Aboriginal population (Canada 2021 Census)

|-

! colspan="2" | Population group!! Population !! % of total population

|-

| colspan="2" | White || 28,015 ||

|-

| rowspan="12" | Visible minority group<BR><small>Source:</small> || South Asian || 0 ||

|-

| Chinese || 55 ||

|-

| Black || 185 ||

|-

| Filipino || 15 ||

|-

| Arab || 35 ||

|-

| Latin American || 30 ||

|-

| Southeast Asian || 35 ||

|-

| West Asian || 0 ||

|-

| Korean || 0 ||

|-

| Japanese || 0 ||

|-

| Visible minority, n.i.e. || 0 ||

|-

| Multiple visible minority || 10 ||

|-

| colspan="2" | Total visible minority population|| 375 ||

|-

| rowspan="5" | Aboriginal group<BR><small>Source:</small> || First Nations || 350 ||

|-

| Métis || 500 ||

|-

| Inuk || 10 ||

|-

| Aboriginal, n.i.e. || 65 ||

|-

| Multiple Aboriginal identity || 10 ||

|-

| colspan="2" | Total Aboriginal population || 935 ||

|-

| colspan="2" | Total population || 29,325 || 100%

|}

Infrastructure

thumb|Petite-Décharge

Transportation

Alma is serviced by the Alma Airport, located 4.1&nbsp;km to the south of the town.

Sister cities

Alma has been twinned with Falaise, Calvados, France, since 1969.

Notable people

  • Camille Bedard, hockey player
  • Chris Boucher, basketball player for the Toronto Raptors
  • Lucien Bouchard, former premier of Québec
  • Guy Cloutier, producer and artist manager
  • Guillaume Desbiens, hockey player
  • Michel Harvey, hockey player for the Quebec Nordiques
  • Charles Hudon, hockey player for the Ontario Reign
  • Pierre Lapointe, singer
  • Émilie Fortin Tremblay (1872–1949), one of the first white women to cross the Chilkoot on the way to the Yukon gold fields
  • François-Louis Tremblay, Olympic gold medallist short-track speed skater
  • Mario Tremblay, hockey player and former coach of the Montreal Canadiens

See also

  • List of cities in Quebec

References

  • Ville d'Alma