St Johns

About

St. John's is the capital and the largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the Eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula.

St John's is the easternmost city in North America, excluding Greenland, and spans a total distance of 446 square kilometres.

St John's played a vital role in the French and Indian war, the war of 1812, and the American Revolution, making it a culturally and historically popular tourist destination.

Demography

• The population of St Johns is 113,948 as of 2017, making it the largest city by population in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• The average age of residents in the city is 40.5. 16.5% of the residents are over 65 years, while almost 14% are made up of children under the age of 15 years.
• Over 70% of the residents aged between 25 to 65 are educated and hold a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or a degree, while 20.6% have a secondary school diploma or equivalent, and 7.4% have an apprenticeship or trades certificate.
• The city has an overall unemployment rate of 8,9%, which is slightly higher than the national average of 7.7%.
• 88% of the population are white, 7% are made up by visible minorities, including Chinese, South Asian, Black, and Arab, and 4.9% are aboriginal.
• The residents of the city are predominantly Christian, either Catholics or Protestants. In recent years, the percentage of residents with ‘no religion' has risen from 3.9% to 11.1%.

Geography

St. John's is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast of Newfoundland, in the Avalon Peninsula.

Th city stretches over a total area of 446.04 square kilometers, and is the most easterly city in North America, with the exception of Greenland.

It is the largest city in the province and the second largest in the Atlantic Provinces after Halifax. Coniferous trees such as black spruce, white spruce, and balsam fir dominate the native vegetation.

Culture

The downtown area is the cultural hub of St. John's and is a major tourist destination in Newfoundland and Labrador and Atlantic Canada.

Water Street and Duckworth Street are known for their brightly coloured low rise heritage buildings, housing numerous tourist shops, clothing boutiques, and restaurants.

George Street, a downtown side-street above the western end of Water Street, is the predominant home of the city's nightlife. It holds numerous annual festivals including the George Street Festival in August and the Mardi Gras Festival in October.

The city has a symphony orchestra, a string quartet, and several choirs.

The LSPU Hall is home to the Resource Centre for the Arts. The "Hall" hosts a vibrant and diverse arts community and is regarded as the backbone of artistic infrastructure and development in the downtown.

The St. John's Arts and Culture Centre houses an art gallery, libraries and a 1000-seat theatre, which is the city's major venue for entertainment productions.

The Nickel Film Festival and the St. John's International Women's Film Festival are two independent film festivals held annually in St. John's.

Pippy Park is an urban park in the east end of the city; with over 3,400 acres of land, it is one of Canada's largest urban parks. The park contains a range of recreational facilities including two golf courses, Newfoundland and Labrador's largest serviced campground, walking and skiing trails as well as protected habitat for many plants and animals. Pippy Park is also home to the Fluvarium, an environmental education centre which offers a cross section view of Nagle's Hill Brook. Bowring Park, in the Waterford Valley, is one of the most scenic parks in St. John's. Entrance to the park is via Waterford Bridge Road, passing a sculptured duck pond and a statue of Peter Pan. St. John's has been home to several professional hockey franchises. The St. John's Maple Leafs were an American Hockey League (AHL) team from 1991 to 2005.

The St. John's Edge is a Canadian professional basketball team based in National Basketball League of Canada that launched as an expansion team for the 2017–18 season at the Mile One Centre. St. John's is home to North America's oldest annual sporting event, the Royal St. John's Regatta, which dates back to at least 1816.

Curling has gained prominence in St. John's over the years.

Climate

St. John's has a humid continental climate. Average temperatures range from −4.9 °C in February to 16.1 °C in August.

The city is also one of the areas of the country most prone to tropical cyclone activity, as it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, where tropical storms (and sometimes hurricanes) travel from the United States.

The city is one of the rainiest in Canada outside of coastal British Columbia.

Of major Canadian cities, St. John's is the foggiest, windiest, and cloudiest. Average number of sunshine hours per year is 1,497. Precipitation is frequent and often heavy, falling year round.

Summer is the driest season, with only occasional thunderstorm activity, and the wettest months are from October to January.

In winter, snowfall is heavy, averaging nearly 335 centimetres per winter. Heavy snow can turn into heavy rain, melting the snow cover, and possibly back to snow or ice.

University Education

The largest University in Atlantic Canada is Memorial University, of newfoundland (MUN). MUN awards undergraduate degrees and specializes in areas such as engineering, business, geology, and medicine. MUN also offers the lowest tuition per year in all of Canada; $2,644.

The Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland (MI) is a post-secondary ocean and marine polytechnic in St. John's and is affiliated with Memorial University of Newfoundland.

The College of the North Atlantic (CNA) is the public college of the province and operates two main campuses in the city. CNA provides career, trade, and university-transfer programs for St. John's residents.

The city also houses many private colleges and post-secondary schools, including Academy Canada, Eastern College, and Keyin College.

St Johns Higher Education Institutions

• Memorial University of Newfoundland
• College of the North Atlantic Prince Philip Drive

Key Industries

Key performing industries in the St Johns economy includes:

St. John's economy is connected to both its role as the provincial capital of Newfoundland and Labrador and to the ocean. The civil service has been the key to the expansion of the city's labour force and to the stability of its economy, which supports a sizable retail, service and business sector.

The city is the centre of the oil and gas industry in Eastern Canada and is one of 19 World Energy Cities.

ExxonMobil Canada is headquartered in St. John's and companies such as Chevron, Husky Energy, Suncor Energy and Statoil have major regional operations in the city.

The economy has grown quickly in recent years. At $52,000 the city's per capita GDP is the second highest out of all major Canadian cities.

Economic forecasts suggest the city will continue its strong economic growth in the coming years.

In May 2011, the city's unemployment rate fell to 5.6 per cent, the second lowest unemployment rate for a major city in Canada.

St. John's is also becoming known as an entrepreneurial city. In a 2009 report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Communities in Boom: Canada's Top Entrepreneurial Cities, St. John's was ranked the best major city in Atlantic Canada and 19th overall in Canada for providing a good environment for small business development.