Human Capital: the facts

With its eleven institutions of higher learning, including four major universities (two French-language and two English-language), several colleges and many private and public schools, the Montreal metropolitan area is a fantastic reservoir of highly skilled human resources.

Montreal has 160,000 students including the largest number of foreign students in Canada (17,000). Nearly

40,000 students earned a university degree in 2003 and close to 40% of the total population has a college or university degree.

Montreal is second only to Boston, MA among leading North American cities in terms of the proportion of uni- versity students per capita.

More than half of the population is bilingual

(French/English) although more than 80 languages are spoken in the region.

Nearly 9,000 students are currently enrolled in a pro- gram related to life sciences and over 2,000 university degrees are awarded every year in life sciences.

Scientists

Montreal ranks 8th in North America for biophar- maceutical jobs.

The life sciences industry employs over 37,000 highly skilled people including 9,000 employees working at 125 public research organizations.

Management

With 660 companies or establishments, the Metro Montreal life sciences industry offers a reservoir of trained and skilled professionals and managers.

Average Annual Salary Comparison (in US$)

Source : ERI Economic Research Institute, January 1, 2005

This document had been prepared by: Montréal International