Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the city of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater Toronto Area begins in Burlington in Halton Region to the west, and extends along Lake Ontario past downtown Toronto eastward to Clarington in Durham Region.
According to the 2021 census, the Census Metropolitan Area of Toronto has a total population of 6.202 million residents, making it the nation's largest, and the 7th-largest in North America. However, the Greater Toronto Area, which is an economic area defined by the Government of Ontario, includes communities that are not included in the CMA, as defined by Statistics Canada. Extrapolating the data for all 25 communities in the Greater Toronto Area from the 2021 Census, the total population for the economic region included 6,711,985 people.
The Greater Toronto Area is a part of several larger areas in Southern Ontario. The area is also combined with the city of Hamilton to form a conurbation known as the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The GTHA combined with Niagara Region form the core of the Golden Horseshoe.
Etymology
The term "Greater Toronto" was first used in writing as early as the 1900s although at the time, the term referred only to the old city of Toronto and to its immediate townships and villages, which became Metropolitan Toronto in 1954 and became the current city of Toronto in 1998. The use of the term involving the four surrounding regional municipalities came into formal use in the mid-1980s, when it was used in a widely discussed report on municipal governance restructuring in the region and was later made official as a provincial planning area. However, it did not come into everyday usage until the mid-to-late 1990s.In 2006, the term began to be supplanted in the field of spatial planning as provincial policy increasingly began to refer to either the "Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area" or the still-broader "Greater Golden Horseshoe". The latter includes the Greater Toronto Area's satellite municipalities, such as Peterborough, Barrie, Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Niagara Region. The GTA continues, however, to be in official use elsewhere in the Government of Ontario, such as the Ministry of Finance.
Census metropolitan area
Some municipalities considered part of the GTA are not within the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area, which is smaller than the land area and population of the GTA planning area. For example, Oshawa is the centre of its own CMA, yet deemed part of the Greater Toronto Area, while other municipalities, such as New Tecumseth in southern Simcoe County and Mono Township in Dufferin County are included in the Toronto CMA but not in the GTA. These different border configurations result in the GTA's population being higher than the Toronto CMA by nearly one-half million people, often leading to confusion amongst people when trying to sort out Toronto's urban population.Other nearby urban areas, such as Hamilton, Barrie, St. Catharines-Niagara or Kitchener-Waterloo, are not part of the GTA or the Toronto CMA, but form their own CMAs near the GTA. Ultimately, all the aforementioned places are part of the Greater Golden Horseshoe metropolitan region, an urban agglomeration, which is the fifth most populous in North America. It is part of the Great Lakes megalopolis, containing an estimated 59.1 million people in 2011.
| Census division | Census subdivision | In GTA | Toronto CMA | Oshawa CMA | Hamilton CMA |
| Toronto | Toronto | ||||
| Durham Region | Ajax | ||||
| Durham Region | Clarington | ||||
| Durham Region | Brock | ||||
| Durham Region | Oshawa | ||||
| Durham Region | Pickering | ||||
| Durham Region | Scugog | ||||
| Durham Region | Uxbridge | ||||
| Durham Region | Whitby | ||||
| Halton Region | Burlington | ||||
| Halton Region | Halton Hills | ||||
| Halton Region | Milton | ||||
| Halton Region | Oakville | ||||
| Peel Region | Brampton | ||||
| Peel Region | Caledon | ||||
| Peel Region | Mississauga | ||||
| York Region | Aurora | ||||
| York Region | East Gwillimbury | ||||
| York Region | Georgina | ||||
| York Region | King | ||||
| York Region | Markham | ||||
| York Region | Newmarket | ||||
| York Region | Richmond Hill | ||||
| York Region | Vaughan | ||||
| York Region | Whitchurch-Stouffville | ||||
| York Region | Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation | ||||
| Dufferin County | Mono | ||||
| Dufferin County | Orangeville | ||||
| Simcoe County | Bradford West Gwillimbury | ||||
| Simcoe County | New Tecumseth |
Extended area
The term "Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area" because of the growing commuter population in the combined region. The GTHA and the Regional Municipality of Niagara form the inner ring of the larger Greater Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration and secondary region of Ontario.History
Early history
was home to a number of First Nations who lived on the shore of Lake Ontario long before the first Europeans arrived in the region. At various times, the Neutral, the Seneca, the Mohawk and the Huron nations were living in the vicinity. The Mississaugas arrived in the late 17th or early 18th century, driving out the occupying Iroquois. While it is unclear as to who was the first European to reach the Toronto area, there is no question it occurred in the 17th century.File:The Short Portage - The Carrying Place, La Salle on the way over the Humber.jpg|left|thumb|300px|By the 17th century, the area was a crucial point for travel, with the Humber and Rouge River providing a shortcut to Lake Simcoe and the upper Great Lakes. These routes were known as the Toronto Passage.
The area would later become very crucial for its series of trails and water routes that led from northern and western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Known as the "Toronto Passage", it followed the Humber River, as an important overland shortcut between Lake Ontario, Lake Simcoe and the upper Great Lakes. For this reason the area, under French fur traders, became a major part of the North American fur trade. The French would later establish three trading forts, Magasin Royal in the 1720s, although abandoned within the decade, Fort Toronto in 1750 and Fort Rouillé in 1751. During the Seven Years' War both forts were abandoned but Fort Toronto was later renovated. Fort Rouillé was burnt down after the Battle of Fort Niagara in 1759 by the French garrison during the French and Indian War.
The first large influx of European settlers to settle the region were the United Empire Loyalists arriving after the American Revolution, when various individuals petitioned the Crown for land in and around the Toronto area. In 1787, the British negotiated the purchase of more than a quarter million acres of land in the area of Toronto with the Mississaugas of New Credit. York County, would later be created by Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1792, which would at its largest size, comprise all of what is now Halton Region, Toronto, Peel Region, York Region and parts of Durham Region.
The GTA saw three American incursions during the War of 1812. The Town of York was attacked by American forces at Battle of York, on April 27, 1813; and was subsequently occupied until May 8. The second incursion occurred several months later, in July 1813, with two landings in the GTA. On July 29, American forces landed at Burlington Beach in an attempt to dislodge British forces at the adjacent Burlington Heights. However, finding the British forces too well-entrenched for any assault to be successful, the American naval force withdrew and proceeded east towards York. The American landings at York on July 31 went unopposed, with most of the soldiers garrisoned at York directed to defend Burlington Heights. The third incursion occurred a year later, when an American naval squadron arrived outside of York's harbour on August 6, 1814. The squadron dispatched to enter the harbour in order to gauge the town's defences, where it briefly exchanged cannon fire with Fort York before withdrawing to rejoin the American squadron outside the harbour. American forces did not attempt a landing during this incursion, although remained outside York's harbour for three days before departing.
In 1816, Wentworth County and Halton County were created from York County. York County would later serve as the setting for the beginnings of the Upper Canada Rebellion with William Lyon Mackenzie's armed march from Holland Landing towards York Township on Yonge Street, eventually leading up to the battle at Montgomery's Tavern. In 1851, Ontario County and Peel County were separated from York.
File:YorkCountyOntario1880s.jpg|thumb|Although the original boundaries of York County encompassed nearly all of the GTA, by 1851, its boundaries had been reduced to the present-day City of Toronto and York Region as depicted on the 1871 map.