Laval [ a ] is a city in Quebec , Canada. It is in the southwest of the province, north of Montreal. It is the largest suburb of Montreal , the third-largest city in the province after Montreal and Quebec City , and the thirteenth largest city in Canada, with a population of , in Laval constitutes one of the 17 administrative regions of Quebec , with a region code of 13, as well as a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality TE and census division CD with geographical code It also constitutes the judicial district of Laval.
The first European Settlers in Laval were Jesuits , who were granted a seigneury there in Agriculture first appeared in Laval in In , after nearly years being of a rural nature, additional municipalities began to be created. The only built-up area on the island, Sainte-Rose , was incorporated as a village in , and it remained the main community for the remainder of the century.
With the dawn of the 20th century came urbanization. Laval-sur-le-Lac was founded in the same year and had its tourist-based economy based on Montrealers. Laval began to grow throughout the following years because its proximity to Montreal made it an ideal suburb. The amalgamation turned out to be so successful for the municipalities involved that the Quebec government decided to amalgamate the whole island into a single city of Laval in , not without controversy.
At the time, Laval had a population of , Laval became a Regional County Municipality in Until then, it had been the County of Laval. The 14 municipalities, which existed prior to the incorporation of the amalgamated City of Laval on 6 August , were:.
The island has developed over time, with most of the urban area in the central region and along the south and west river banks. Laval experiences a four-season humid continental climate Koppen : Dfb with very warm summers and very cold winters with adequate precipitation year-round, though more so during summer and early fall. In the Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Laval had a population of , living in , of its , total private dwellings, a change of 3.
