Human Capital: the facts

With its eleven institutions of higher education, 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 170,000 students including the largest number of foreign students in Canada (17,000). Nearly 40,000 students earned a university degree in 2004 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 university students per capita.

More than half of the population is bilingual (French/English), although more than 80 languages are spoken in the region.

Nearly 10,000 students are currently enrolled in a program related to life sciences and over 2,300 university degrees are awarded every year in life sciences.

Scientists

Montreal ranks 8th in North America for biopharmaceutical jobs.

The life sciences industry employs over 40,500 highly skilled people including 9,000 employees working at 149 public and parapublic research organizations.

Management

With 630 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, Data as of October 1, 2006

* Exchange rate : 1  CA$ = 1.1162 US$ (average for  September 2006)

This document had been prepared by: Montréal International