Kitchener, Ontario, a city located about 100 km west of Toronto, is a vibrant blend of history and modernity. Known as Berlin until a 1916 referendum changed its name, Kitchener is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. With a population of 256,885 as of the 2021 Canadian census, Kitchener is the regional seat and covers an area of 136.86 km2. The Regional Municipality of Waterloo is home to 575,847 people, making it the 10th-largest census metropolitan area (CMA) in Canada and the fourth-largest CMA in Ontario. Kitchener and Waterloo are often referred to jointly as "Kitchener–Waterloo" (K–W), although they have separate municipal governments.
Indigenous people have long inhabited the area now known as Kitchener-Waterloo. The landscape opened up for nomadic populations to hunt, camp, and thrive after the retreat of the last glacial maximum. The Archaic Period (8,000BC to 800BC) saw advancements in technologies, including less portable stone tools and more intricate tools made of animal bone. The Neutral people expanded to the Kitchener-Waterloo area sometime in the 1300s, during the Woodland Period (900BC to 1650AD). Archaeological finds include the remains of a First Nations village, estimated to be 500 years old, discovered in 2010 in the Strasburg Creek area of Kitchener. The inhabitants are thought to be ancestors of the Neutral Nation.
Kitchener, Ontario, has a strong German heritage due to the high levels of settlement in this area by German-speaking immigrants. The German community became industrial and political leaders, establishing German public schools and German-language churches. The German-speaking groups held the Sängerfest, or "Singer Festival" concert event in Berlin that attracted an estimated 10,000 people and continued for several years. By 1871, Berlin, Ontario, was a bilingual town with German being the dominant language spoken.
The German community in Kitchener, Ontario, created a German-Canadian society unlike any other found in Canada at the time. The combination of various types of German-speaking groups was a notable factor in the history of Waterloo County. The German-speaking groups held the Sängerfest, or "Singer Festival" concert event in Berlin that attracted an estimated 10,000 people and continued for several years. In 1897, they raised funds to erect a large monument, with a bronze bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I, in Victoria Park. The monument was destroyed by townspeople just after the start of World War I. A statue of Queen Victoria was erected in the park in 1911.
The interwar and postwar periods saw a wave of suburban development around Kitchener, Ontario. One prominent example of this was the Westmount neighbourhood. Modelled after the affluent Montreal suburb of the same name, it was developed on the forested hills to the north of the Schneider farmstead on lands that were subdivided from it. The suburb was the brainchild of a local rubber magnate, Talmon Henry Rieder, who was heavily connected to Montreal business interests.
According to the 2016 Census, Kitchener, Ontario, is approximately 76.3% White, 21.8% visible minorities, and 1.9% Aboriginal. Visible minorities include South Asian, Black, Latin American, Southeast Asian, Chinese, Arab, West Asian, and Filipino. The most common ethnicities in Kitchener as per the 2016 census are Canadian, German, English, Irish, Scottish, French, Polish, Dutch, East Indian, and Italian.
Kitchener, Ontario, is located in Southwestern Ontario, in the Saint Lawrence Lowlands. This geological and climatic region has wet-climate soils and deciduous forests. Situated in the Grand River Valley, the area is generally above 300 m (1,000 ft)
