Edmonton is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchors the north end of what Statistics Canada defines as the "Calgary–Edmonton Corridor".The metro area of Edmonton had a population of 1,491,000 at the beginning of 2021, making it Alberta's second-largest city and Canada's fifth-largest municipality.