The Stampede: It’s not Calgary’s first rodeo

Calgary has come a long way since the first official annual Calgary Exhibition and Stampede was held in 1923. Calgary’s population has grown from just over 63,000 in 1921 to 1.3 million by 2021. The Calgary Stampede has also become one of Canada’s biggest annual festivals, with just under 1.5 million people attending what’s touted as “the greatest outdoor show on earth” in 2025. 

While many Stampede attendees are local, the event also attracts tourists from south of the border and overseas, too. Calgary is the largest air hub in the Prairies, and arrivals from the United States and overseas traditionally peak in July, during the Stampede. 

In July 2025, 127,001 tourists from the United States landed in Calgary by plane, up 13.0% compared with July 2024. A further 56,038 tourists from overseas countries arrived in Calgary in July 2025, an increase of 21.3% over the same period in 2024.

Don’t let all the cowboy hats, boots and other countrified paraphernalia during the Stampede fool you, Calgary’s labour force is overwhelmingly concentrated in city slicker occupations. 

During the 2021 Census, 2,635 people, or 0.4% of the labour force aged 15 years and older in Calgary, were working in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector.

By way of comparison, 29,824 people were working at one of the 221 head offices located in Calgary in 2024, placing Calgary third nationally in terms of head office employment and fourth in terms of head offices.

It takes thousands of hours of labour, paid and unpaid, to make the Stampede the success it is today.

In 2023, Canadians volunteered 193 million hours of their time to sports and recreational organizations, while 57 million hours were volunteered at arts and culture organizations.

Popular events at the Stampede include bull riding, calf roping and barrel racing on horseback. Alberta has plenty of all three animals to meet Stampede needs. In 2021, for example, Alberta farmers reported a nation-leading 1.7 million calves under the age of 1 year, 975,015 steers aged 1 year or older and 68,025 horses and ponies. 

Overall, 59.7% of Canada’s steers aged 1 year or older, 42.7% of the calves aged 1 year or younger and 37.0% of all horses and ponies were on Alberta farms.

Our statistical sleuths have already started crunching the numbers for the 2026 Census of Population and Census of Agriculture. First results will be published in February 2027, with Census of Agriculture data coming out on May 12, 2027.