Before the 19th century, the area between the provincial capital of York and the township of West Flamborough was home to the Mississauga nation.

In 1792, John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, named the western end of Lake Ontario "Burlington Bay" after the town of Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

[4] The British purchased the land on which Burlington now stands from the Mississaugas in Upper Canada Treaties 3 (1792), 8 (1797), 14 (1806), and 19 (1818).

[8][9] Subsequent disputes between the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Canadian government over payment for the Brant Tract and the Toronto Purchase were settled in 2010 for the sum of $145 million (CAD).

[11] The arrival of large steamships on the Great Lakes made the small docks of the local ports obsolete, and the increased use of railway to ship goods marked the end of the commercial wharves.

The first peaches grown in Canada were cultivated in the Grindstone Creek watershed in the city's south-west part.

[12] Following the Second World War, cheap electricity from nearby Niagara Falls and better transportation access due to the new (1939) Queen Elizabeth Way encouraged both light industry and families to move to Burlington.

[13] Burlington was the site of the Brant Inn built by the lake in 1917, which became famous during the ’40s and ’50s for showing big-band performers.

Burlington is at the southwestern end of Lake Ontario, just to the north east of Hamilton and the Niagara Peninsula, roughly in the geographic centre of the urban corridor known as the Golden Horseshoe.

The city is no longer a port; sailing vessels in the area are used for recreational purposes and moor at a 215 slip marina in LaSalle Park.Burlington's climate is humid continental (Köppen climate classification Dfa) with hot, humid summers and cold and snowy winters.

Although it shares the continental climate found in Southern Ontario, its proximity to the lake moderates winter temperatures and it also benefits from a sheltering effect of the Niagara Escarpment, allowing the most northerly tracts of Carolinian forest to thrive on the Escarpment that runs through western sections of city.

Several species of flora and fauna usually found only in more southern climes are present in Burlington, including paw-paw (Asimina triloba), green dragon (Arisaema dracontium), tuckahoe (Peltandra virginica), American columbo (Frasera caroliniensis), wall-rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria), plus the Louisiana waterthrush, hooded warbler, southern flying squirrel and rare eastern pipistrelle bat.

Near the visible promontory of Mount Nemo that rises some 200 m (650 ft) above the lake level, a "vertical forest" of white cedar clinging to the Escarpment face includes many small trees that are more than one thousand years old.

[20] According to the 2016 census, the most common mother tongue in Burlington is English (78.7%), followed by French (1.6%), Spanish (1.5%), Polish (1.3%), and Arabic (1.2).

[29] The city has a robust economy with potential for growth—it is at the hub of the Golden Horseshoe, is largely driven by both the automotive and manufacturing sectors.

The leading industrial sectors, in terms of employment, are food processing, packaging, electronics, motor vehicle/transportation, business services, chemical/pharmaceutical and environmental.

The top five private sector employers in Burlington are Fearmans Pork Inc, Cogeco Cable, Evertz Microsystems, Boehringer Ingelheim and EMC2.

Other notable business include The EBF Group, ARGO Land Development, The Sunshine Doughnut Company and TipTapPay Micropayments Ltd.[30][31][32] The largest public sector employers in the city are the City of Burlington, Burlington Economic Development, the Halton District School Board, the Halton Catholic District School Board and Joseph Brant Hospital.

[citation needed] The Burlington Teen Tour Band has operated in the city since 1947, including members between the ages of 13 and 21.

It is composed of local volunteer musicians, and plays a wide variety of musical styles and repertoire.

The BCB maintains an open membership policy, allowing anyone who feels they can handle the music competently to join without an audition.

On the shore of Lake Ontario, Spencer Smith Park features a shoreline walking path, an observatory, water jet play area and restaurant.

The park includes the Burlington Rotary Centennial Pond, used for model sail boating and ice-skating.

The Brant Street Pier opened in Spencer Smith Park during the Sound of Music Festival in 2013.

Located at The Village Square in Burlington's downtown are historic landmarks, businesses, shopping, and dining area.

Kerncliff Park, in a decommissioned quarry on the boundary with Waterdown, is a naturalized area on the lip of the Niagara Escarpment.

Burlington Airpark in the city's north end is a thriving general-aviation without regular commercial passenger flight service.

On 26 February 2012, a Via Rail train traveling from Niagara Falls to Toronto Union Station derailed in Burlington, with three fatalities.

Burlington listeners are also served by stations licensed to Toronto, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Buffalo, New York.