Alberta is one of Canada’s ten provinces. Its capital is Edmonton. The other major cities are Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie and Medicine Hat. Nearly 81% of the population lives in urban areas and 19% in rural areas. Alberta is currently home to about 3.47 million people. Nearly 1.08 million of them live in the Edmonton area and about 1.14 million live in the Calgary area.

Canada is officially a bilingual country, but Alberta’s official language is English. The majority of the provincial population is Anglophone. The provincial government services in Alberta are offered primarily in English. According to the 2016 census, 2.3% of Alberta’s population speaks French as its first language (about 88,220 inhabitants) and 268,640 people can speak French.

The government of Alberta established the Francophone Secretariat in 1999. Its principal mandate is to serve as a liaison between the provincial government and Alberta’s francophone community.

Government of Alberta
Francophone Secretariat