[10] The population resides in an urban core and many smaller communities scattered around 330 lakes and among hills of rock blackened by historical smelting activity.

The Sudbury region was inhabited by the Ojibwe people of the Algonquin group as early as 9,000 years ago following the retreat of the last continental ice sheet.

[11] In 1850, local Ojibwe chiefs entered into an agreement with the British Crown to share a large tract of land, including what is now Sudbury, as part of the Robinson Huron Treaty.

[17] During construction of the railway in 1883, blasting and excavation revealed high concentrations of nickel-copper ore at Murray Mine on the edge of the Sudbury Basin.

This enabled the municipality, province and Inco and academics from Laurentian University to begin an environmental recovery program in the late 1970s, labelled a "regreening" effort.

A unique and visionary project, Science North was inaugurated in 1984 with two-snowflake styled buildings connected by a tunnel through the Canadian shield where the Creighton fault intersects the shores of Lake Ramsey.

Xstrata donated the historic Edison Building, the onetime head office of Falconbridge, to the city in 2007 to serve as the new home of the municipal archives.

[36] Sudbury's pentlandite, pyrite and pyrrhotite ores contain profitable amounts of many elements—primarily nickel and copper, but also platinum, palladium and other valuable metals.

This region has warm and often humid summers with occasional short lasting periods of hot weather, with long, cold and snowy winters.

[77] While mining has decreased in relative importance, Sudbury's economy has diversified to establish itself as a major centre of finance, business, tourism, health care, education, government, and science and technology research.

[84] Television series filmed in the city include Météo+,[95] Les Bleus de Ramville,[96] Hard Rock Medical,[97] Dark Rising: Warrior of Worlds,[98] Letterkenny,[99] St. Nickel,[100] Cardinal,[101] What Would Sal Do?,[102] Bad Blood[103] and Shoresy.

[104] March Entertainment's studio in Sudbury has produced a number of animated television series, including Chilly Beach, Maple Shorts, Yam Roll, and Dex Hamilton: Alien Entomologist.

[105] The city's LGBT community has been profiled in two documentary films, the Genie Award-winning Mum's the Word (Maman et Ève) in 1996[106] and The Pinco Triangle in 1999.

With over 22% of its population having French as its mother tongue,[4] Greater Sudbury's culture is influenced by the large Franco-Ontarian community, particularly in the amalgamated municipalities of Valley East and Rayside-Balfour and historically in the Moulin-à-Fleur neighbourhood.

The French culture is celebrated with the Franco-Ontarian flag, recognized by the province as an official emblem, which was created in 1975 by a group of teachers at Laurentian University and after some controversy has flown at Tom Davies Square since 2006.

The city's only professional theatre company is the francophone Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (TNO), one of seven organizations residing at the Place des Arts, where it also stages its performances.

In 2021, YES Theatre unveiled plans for the Refettorio, which would convert a vacant lot on Durham Street near the YMCA into an outdoor theatrical and musical performance space.

[131] The Up Here Festival, launched in 2015, blends a program of musical performance with the creation of both murals and installation art projects throughout the downtown core,[132] while PlaySmelter, a theatre festival devoted to theatrical and storytelling performances by local writers and actors, was launched in 2013, and is held at various venues in the city including the Sudbury Theatre Centre and Place des Arts.

[134] Works of fiction themed or set primarily or partially in Sudbury or its former suburbs include Robert J. Sawyer's The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Alistair MacLeod's novel No Great Mischief, Paul Quarrington's Logan in Overtime, Jean-Marc Dalpé's play 1932, la ville du nickel and his short story collection Contes sudburois, and Chloé LaDuchesse's L'Incendiare de Sudbury.

[135] The city is also fictionalized as "Chinookville" in several books by American comedy writer Jack Douglas, and as "Complexity" in Tomson Highway's musical play The (Post) Mistress.

[136] Noted writers who have lived in Sudbury include playwrights Jean-Marc Dalpé, Sandra Shamas and Brigitte Haentjens, poets Robert Dickson, Roger Nash, Gregory Scofield and Margaret Christakos, fiction writers Kelley Armstrong, Sean Costello, Sarah Selecky, Matthew Heiti and Jeffrey Round, poet Patrice Desbiens, journalist Mick Lowe and academics Richard E. Bennett, Michel Bock, Rand Dyck, Graeme S. Mount and Gary Kinsman.

These include Robert Paquette, Kate Maki, Gil Grand, Kevin Closs, CANO, Jake Mathews, Loma Lyns, Alex J. Robinson, Chuck Labelle, En Bref and Ox.

High-profile concerts take place at the Sudbury Community Arena, while other touring acts play venues including the Grand Theatre,[138] Knox Hall,[139] and The Towne House.

[140] Bell Park's outdoor Grace Hartman Amphitheatre serves as the primary venue for the Northern Lights Festival Boréal, and hosts other summer concerts.

[141] Concerts are also sometimes staged at Laurentian University's Fraser Auditorium, although it is also used for theatre shows, stand-up comedy performances and lectures rather than serving as a full-time music venue.

This interactive science museum focuses principally on geology and mining history exhibitions and is also home to the Big Nickel, one of Sudbury's most famous landmarks.

Via Rail's Sudbury–White River train (a remnant of the old Lake Superior passenger service to Thunder Bay) serves a number of remote interior communities, some of which are not accessible by road, from the downtown Sudbury station.

CICI-TV produces almost all local programming on the CTV Northern Ontario system, and the CBC Radio stations CBCS-FM and CBON-FM broadcast to the entire region through extensive rebroadcaster networks.

The South Side Story used to be a print and online publication but has been defunct since 2019. Notable people from Sudbury include television game-show Jeopardy!

host Alex Trebek (which he hosted from 1984 to his death in 2020), Supreme Court Justice Michelle O'Bonsawin, architect Jason F. McLennan who created the Living Building Challenge and is CEO of McLennan Design, Power Corporation of Canada chairman Paul Desmarais Jr., mining speculator and philanthropist Frank Giustra, founder of Lionsgate Entertainment president of United Steelworkers, Leo Gerard, Canada national soccer team forward Cloé Lacasse, former Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle, Olympic swimmer Alex Baumann, Rebecca Johnston who plays for the Canadian Women's Hockey Team, and Tessa Bonhomme was a former player.