page_title: Markham, Ontario
hierarchical_section_title: Markham, Ontario
context_page_description: Markham is a city in the Regional Municipality of York in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately 30 km northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2016 Census, Markham had a population of 328,940, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest in the Greater Toronto Area, and 16th largest in Canada.
  The city gained its name from the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, who named the area after his friend, William Markham, the Archbishop of York from 1776 to 1807. The first European settlement in Markham occurred when William Berczy, a German artist and developer, led a group of approximately sixty-four German families to North America. While they planned to settle in New York, disputes over finances and land tenure led Berczy to negotiate with Simcoe for 64,000 acres in Markham Township in 1794. Since the 1970s, Markham rapidly shifted from being an agricultural community to an industrialized municipality due to urban sprawl from neighbouring Toronto. Markham changed its status from town to city on July 1, 2012.
  As of 2013, tertiary industry mainly drives Markham.
context_section_description: Markham (/ˈmɑːrkəm/) is a city in the Regional Municipality of York in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately 30 km (19 mi) northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2016 Census, Markham had a population of 328,940, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and 16th largest in Canada.
  The city gained its name from the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe (in office 1791–1796), who named the area after his friend, William Markham, the Archbishop of York from 1776 to 1807. The first European settlement in Markham occurred when William Berczy, a German artist and developer, led a group of approximately sixty-four German families to North America. While they planned to settle in New York, disputes over finances and land tenure led Berczy to negotiate with Simcoe for 64,000 acres (260 km²) in Markham Township in 1794. Since the 1970s, Markham rapidly shifted from being an agricultural community to an industrialized municipality due to urban sprawl from neighbouring Toronto. Markham changed its status from town to city on July 1, 2012.
  As of 2013, tertiary industry mainly drives Markham. As of 2010, "business services" employed the largest proportion of workers in Markham – nearly 22% of its labour force.
  The city also has over 1,000 technology and life-sciences companies, with IBM as the city's largest employer. Several multinational companies have their Canadian headquarters in Markham, including: Honda Canada, Hyundai, Advanced Micro Devices,Johnson & Johnson,
  Avaya,
  IBM,Motorola,Oracle,Toshiba,Toyota Financial Services, Huawei, Honeywell and Scholastic Canada.
caption: Location of Markham within York Region