Sainte-Marie, Quebec

Sainte-Marie is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of La Nouvelle-Beauce Regional County Municipality, in Chaudière-Appalaches, Quebec, Canada. It had a population was 13,134 as of the Canada 2021 Census, when 95.7% was French-speaking. It is located south-east of Quebec City, on the Chaudière River.

History

The seigneurie of Sainte-Marie-de-la-Nouvelle-Beauce was granted to Thomas-Jacques Taschereau in 1736. He chose the name in honour of his wife, Marie-Claire de Fleury de La Gorgendière. The religious parish was founded in 1737 and the municipality in 1845.
The territory of Sainte-Marie was divided on several occasions, as population increased, in order to found neighbouring communities: Saint-Bernard, Saint-Isidore, Saint-Maxime-de-Scott, Sainte-Marguerite, Sainte-Hénédine, Saint-Sylvestre, Saint-Elzéar, Saint-Séverin, Saints-Anges, and Vallée-Jonction.
In 1913, the territory was split again, following the detachment of the village from the parish municipality. In 1958, the village was constituted as a city and in 1959, Sainte-Marie-de-la-Nouvelle-Beauce was renamed as Sainte-Marie. In 1978, the city and the parish municipality governments amalgamated.

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Sainte-Marie 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.