# Travel >> Destinations >> Canada

Ontario Cities Beyond the Capital: Major Urban Centres You Should Know

Ontario's 444 municipalities include Toronto (capital, 2.9M), but the province's character is shaped by its diverse network of other cities. Here are the major non-capital urban centres:

Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Satellites

Mississauga (717K) – Canada's 7th largest city; Pearson Airport, corporate HQs, diverse suburbs
Brampton (656K) – Rapid growth, South Asian cultural hub, manufacturing/logistics
Markham (338K) – Tech centre (IBM, AMD, Huawei), Chinese-Canadian community
Vaughan (323K) – Canada's Wonderland, Vaughan Metropolitan Centre
Richmond Hill (202K) – Affluent, tech, David Dunlap Observatory
Oakville (213K) – Lakeshore, automotive (Ford), historic downtown
Burlington (186K) – Niagara Escarpment, Royal Botanical Gardens

Golden Horseshoe West

Hamilton (569K) – Steel city reinventing: arts, waterfalls, McMaster U, port
St. Catharines (136K) – Niagara Region hub, Welland Canal, Brock U
Niagara Falls (94K) – Tourism magnet, gaming, hydro power
Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge (575K combined) – Tech triangle (Google, BlackBerry UW), Oktoberfest, insurance
Guelph (143K) – U of Guelph, agri-food, manufacturing, limestone architecture

Eastern & Central Ontario

Ottawa (1.0M) – National capital (not provincial); federal government, tech (Kanata), universities
Kingston (132K) – Historic (1st capital), Queen's U, RMC, 1000 Islands gateway
Peterborough (84K) – Trent-Severn Waterway, Trent U, manufacturing
Belleville (55K) – Bay of Quinte, Loyalist College, logistics

Northern Ontario

Sudbury (166K) – Mining (nickel), Science North, Laurentian U, regreening success story
Thunder Bay (108K) – Lakehead, grain terminals, medical school, Terry Fox Monument
Sault Ste. Marie (73K) – Steel (Algoma), Soo Locks border crossing, Algoma U
North Bay (52K) – Nipissing U, aviation, gateway to North
Timmins (41K) – Gold mining, Hollinger Park, Shania Twain Centre