From 1954 to 1998, the City of Toronto was one city within a larger federation of cities and municipalities called Metropolitan Toronto. When Metropolitan Toronto was amalgamated by the Ontario provincial government under Mike Harris to become one government, the City of Toronto was enlarged to include the former cities and municipalities of York, East York, North York, Etobicoke, and Scarborough. All of these former cities or municipalities still maintain, in some ways, their own distinct identities; their names are still used by their residents. The areas within the former City of Toronto prior to the merger are still referred to as the old City of Toronto, the Inner City, Toronto Proper, or Downtown Toronto.

The former “City of Toronto” is still the most densely populated area of the current City of Toronto. As the largest metropolitan area in Canada, its downtown core is also one of the commercial, financial and entertainment centers of the country. Immediately surrounding the core, much of “Uptown” consists of wealthy enclaves such as Yorkville, Rosedale, The Annex, Forest Hill, Lawrence Park, Moore Park, Wychwood Park and Casa Loma – Neighborhood which feature large, upscale residences, luxury condominiums, and high-end retail and services. Other upscale neighborhoods include The Bridle Path in North York and the area surrounding the Scarborough Bluffs in Guildwood. On the entirely opposite spectrum there are areas with a high concentration of social housing and blocks of rental hi-rises found in such areas as St. Jamestown, Regent Park and Parkdale, with very high recent immigrant populations.

The former inner ring suburbs of York and East York are older, traditionally middle-class areas that are also ethnically diverse. Due to an increasing municipal population and a housing boom that ran through the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of the neighborhoods in the inner suburbs experienced accelerated gentrification, with rapidly rising home prices, an influx of wealthier residents, and a boom in upscale businesses to service them. Areas affected the earliest include Leaside and North Toronto, with the western neighborhoods in York just beginning during this time. Much of the housing stock in these areas consists of post-World War I single-family houses and high-rises, but in many areas, these structures are either in the process of being replaced or remodeled.

The outer ring suburbs of the former cities of Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York are much more suburban, although they largely retain the grid patterns of the streets laid down before post-war suburban development, many from towns that existed prior to their creation as cities. These parts also have sections with large apartment blocks of low-income families, mixed with typical detached housing found in suburbia.

Toronto has over 200 neighborhoods within the current city borders, the reason Toronto is often locally described as “a city of neighborhoods.”