The Hochelaga Archipelago, also known as the Montreal Islands, is a group of 234 islands at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa rivers in the southwestern part of the province of Quebec, Canada.

Population

As of 1 July 2021, the Hochelaga Archipelago officially had 2,556,040 inhabitants in the following municipalities:

Size

Estimates of the number of islands in the archipelago vary. The most widely accepted number seems to be 234, although the number has been put as high as 325.

Islands

The largest island in the group is the Island of Montreal, which contains most of the city of Montreal and the central section of its metropolitan area. The city has jurisdiction over 74 smaller islands in the archipelago, most notably Nuns' Island (also known as Île des Sœurs in French), Île Bizard, and the two islands that served as the site of Expo 67, namely Saint Helen's Island (in French Île Sainte-Hélène) and the artificial Île Notre-Dame. The second-largest island in the archipelago is Île Jésus, which along with the Îles Laval and several smaller islands makes up the city of Laval. Other islands include the Îles de Boucherville, featuring a Québec National Park, Île Perrot, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and the neighbouring Grande-Île, as well as the smaller Dorval Island and Dowker Island.

List of named islands

Name

The archipelago takes its name from Hochelaga, an Iroquoian settlement on the Island of Montreal that was later settled by the French and grew to become the modern city of Montreal.