[4] The downtown is divided into several residential, commercial, corporate, and mixed-use neighbourhoods, including the Financial District (CBD), Eau Claire, Chinatown, East Village, Beltline, and the West End.

The neighbourhoods of the Beltline and Mission to the immediate south are often considered part of downtown, due to the high concentrations of businesses, high population densities, and occurrence of retail and nightlife opportunities, but strictly speaking they are not technically part of downtown.

[10] Calgary Transit's CTrain light rail system runs down 7th Avenue S. through the middle of downtown in an east–west direction, and the ride is free on this section.

It is arguably the densest downtown area of any city of its size in North America[citation needed].

It contains the pedestrian mall of Stephen Avenue, lined with restaurants and shops, enclosed shopping centres (including The Core, Scotia Centre, Bankers Hall and The Bay), as well as Calgary's only art house movie theater (the Globe Cinema) and recreation areas such as the Devonian Gardens.

The "Udderly Art Legacy Pasture", a collection of decorated fiberglass cows built in 2000,[11] is hosted mainly in the Centennial Parkade, while other particular exponates are spread throughout the city.

The neighbourhood has since become a new hot-spot for the downtown area, playing host to the award-winning RiverWalk, several restaurants in the historic Simmons Mattress Factory building, and several new condo towers, with several more under construction.

Designed in a traditional style, the cultural centre's roof is modelled after the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

Chinatown Calgary has an area redevelopment plan in place with work continuing towards revitalizing the neighbourhood.

The area, which was developed from reclaimed industrial land, fronts the Bow River and sits immediately north of 3rd Avenue South.

It is also located on the city's large network of pedestrian pathways and trails, along As of the 2016 Canadian Census, the population of Downtown was about 38,663 people living on approximately 6.0 km2 (2.3 sq mi) of land.

[15][16] This puts it at this comparison to other Calgary communities: Saddle Ridge (1.358/100), Whitehorn (1.741/100), Rundle (2.342/100), Brentwood (2.348/100), Acadia (2.542/100), Bowness (2.934/100), Shawnessy (3.296/100), Inglewood (3.438/100), Sunnyside (3.650/100), Marlborough (4.703/100), Southwood (5.147/100), Sunalta (5.307/100), Montgomery (5.483/100), Forest Lawn (6.528/100), Rosscarrock (7.049/100), Downtown Commercial Core (12.705/100), Downtown East Village (15.605/100), Manchester (43.368/100).