Laval, Quebec

Laval is a city in the southwest of Quebec, Canada, north of Montreal, and it is the largest suburb of Greater Montreal and the third-largest city in the province after Montreal and Quebec City. It occupies all of Île Jésus and the Îles Laval, set between the Rivière des Mille Îles to the north and the Rivière des Prairies, which separates it from the Island of Montreal. Laval is also one of the 17 administrative regions of Quebec, with region code 13, and it is the smallest of them by area. The first European settlers were Jesuits, who received a seigneury there in 1636, and in 1675 François de Montmorency-Laval gained control of it. The 2021 census of Statistics Canada counted 438,366 residents, up 3.6 percent from 2016.