Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. It is the second largest city in Alberta after Calgary, with a population of over 700,000 (2006), and a metropolitan population of over 1 million.

Edmonton serves as the northern anchor of the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor (one of four regions that together comprise 50% of Canada's population) and is a staging point for large-scale oil sands projects occurring in northern Alberta and large-scale diamond mining operations in the Northwest Territories. 

The city entered its current period of economic recovery and prosperity by the late 1990s, helped by a strong recovery in oil prices and further economic diversification. The downtown core and parts of the inner city, after years of extremely high office vacancy rates and neglect, have recovered to a great degree, with one of the lowest office rate vacancies. It is still undergoing a renaissance of its own, with further new projects underway or about to become reality, and more people choosing to live in or near the downtown core, which is becoming very vibrant. 

Downtown proper consists of the Commercial Core, Arts District, Rice Howard Way Pedestrian Mall, MacKay Avenue, Jasper-West, Warehouse District and Government Precinct (around Grandin neighbourhood). Radiating from the core are many inner city neighbourhoods such as Oliver, Glenora, Westmount, Queen Mary Park, Inglewood, Central McDougall, Boyle Street, McCauley, Alberta Avenue and Norwood on the north side of the river, while Windsor Park, Garneau, Strathcona, Bonnie Doon, and Strathearn line the south side of the river.