How diverse is Edmonton?

[coleman]

Edmonton looks like a fairly large city but I understand that’s not the most diverse. I’m told that most of the city is ‘white Canadian’ and immigrant groups make up a pretty small proportion of the population, so there’s not a hole lot of cultural diversity. I love how diverse for example London is, with people from all over the world living door to door. So I’m a bit worried about the idea of moving to a place that’s not very vibrant and diverse. Is this perception of Edmonton true or am I worrying about nothing.

[Alyssa_O]

Edmonton is actually more multi-cultural than it looks! Although the largest percentage is Caucasian, there are fairly large middle eastern and Asian communities here. Edmonton also has well established French and Eastern European communities. So although on the onset it may seem like a lot of people are "Canadian" you'd be surprised how many can speak another language or are from another county. If you're interested in moving here, your best bet is to live centrally or near the University of Alberta/ Whyte Avenue area, which tend to be more diverse than the suburbs.

[Kyra_St_Pierre]

I had the same concern before I first moved to Edmonton, but I think that you'll be surprised at just how diverse the city is. I don't think it would be fair to ever compare Edmonton to London (I presume the city in the UK , not the one in Ontario) or even Toronto because they're very differently-sized cities and have very distinct histories. Eastern and Central European settlers were largely targeted during early colonization efforts and those origins are definitely apparent today, but the population is much more diverse than that. There are many opportunities to explore the various cultures present within the city and the food scene is surprisingly strong given that the city is often (undeservingly) overlooked. Some of the more prominent events include the Heritage Festival in early August and Cariwest, but there are many smaller events that celebrate other facets of the community. On a day-to-day basis, the greatest diversity in one location is probably in the Whyte Ave/university and downtown areas, but you can find enclaves of different backgrounds around the city.

[Natalie_Charette]

How diverse is Edmonton? Not very, in my opinion. Particularly if you're comparing it to cities in which multiculturalism has been the norm for decades - if not centuries. If you're definition of culturally diverse is a city like London, New York, Toronto, then Edmonton is unlikely to stack up.