List of municipalities in Alberta
[1] Alberta's 344 municipalities cover 99.7% of the province's land mass and are home to 99% of its population.
[2][a] These municipalities provide local government services, including roads, water, sewer and garbage collection among others, and a variety of programs to their residents.
[8][9] As provincial law, the MGA, the SAA and the MSA were passed by the Legislative Assembly of Alberta with royal assent granted by the Lieutenant Governor.
The MGA stipulates that an area may incorporate as a city if it has a population of 10,000 people or more and the majority of its buildings are on parcels of land smaller than 1,850 m2 (19,900 sq ft).
[2][3] These 19 cities include Lloydminster, of which a portion is located within the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan.
[14] Alberta's largest city by population and land area is Calgary with 1,306,784 and 820.62 km2 (316.84 sq mi), while Wetaskiwin is its smallest city by population with 12,594 and land area at 18.75 km2 (7.24 sq mi).
[15] The MGA stipulates that an area may incorporate as a town if it has a population of 1,000 people or more and the majority of its buildings are on parcels of land smaller than 1,850 m2 (19,900 sq ft).
[2][3][16] The province's largest and smallest towns by population are Cochrane and Rainbow Lake with 32,199 and 495 respectively, while its largest and smallest by land area are Drumheller and Eckville with 107.56 km2 (41.53 sq mi) and 1.61 km2 (0.62 sq mi) respectively.
[17] The MGA stipulates that an area may incorporate as a village if it has a population of 300 people or more and the majority of its buildings are on parcels of land smaller than 1,850 m2 (19,900 sq ft).
[18] Under previous legislation, a community could incorporate as a summer village if it had "a minimum of 50 separate buildings occupied as dwellings at any time during a six-month period".
[3] Gull Lake and Kapasiwin were the last communities in Alberta to incorporate as summer villages.
[3] Lac La Biche County is Alberta's newest specialized municipality, which was formed on January 1, 2018.
[26] Strathcona County and the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo are home to the unincorporated hamlets of Sherwood Park and Fort McMurray respectively.
[27] These communities are designated urban service areas, which are deemed equivalents of cities.
[28][29] Excluding Sherwood Park and Fort McMurray, 18 other unincorporated communities, also recognized as hamlets by Alberta Municipal Affairs, are distributed among Mackenzie County, Strathcona County and the RM of Wood Buffalo.
[32] The MGA, enacted in 2000, stipulates that an area may incorporate as a municipal district if it has a population of 1,000 people or more and the majority of its buildings are on parcels of land larger than 1,850 m2 (19,900 sq ft).
[6][32] Improvement districts are administered by the province of Alberta through its Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
9, located within Banff National Park, with 1,004, while its largest by land area is ID No.
[3] Alberta Municipal Affairs recognizes two unincorporated communities within improvement districts as hamlets – Lake Louise within ID No.
[8][32] They were originally created in 1938 as a result of hardship brought upon a particular area in southeastern Alberta during the drought of the 1930s.
[13] Rather, Statistics Canada recognizes them as designated places embedded within six municipal districts.
[31][41] The province's largest and smallest Metis settlements by population are Kikino and East Prairie with 978 and 310 respectively, while the largest and smallest by land area are Paddle Prairie and Elizabeth at 1,726.45 km2 (666.59 sq mi) and 246.45 km2 (95.15 sq mi) respectively.
