Torbay is a town located on the eastern side of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The town is located north of the capital city of St. John's and is part of the St. John's metropolitan area. Due to the Torbay's close proximity to St. John's, the town's population is quickly growing. According to the 2021 census the population was 7,852, up from 7,397 in 2011. History The name Torbay comes from Torbay, Devon, England and was first mapped in 1615 by John Mason. It comes from the old Anglo-Saxon "Tor" which means "a rocky hill". Both places are geographically similar with wide-open bays that face in a northeasterly direction. An extract from Bishop Feild's journal states, "indeed there seems to be a little colony of Devon folk in Torbay." John Nutt, the pirate, settled here with his family from Devon. The community of Torbay experienced three French campaigns, the first of which occurred in December 1696. These invasions contributed to the eventual construction of the Torbay Battery in 1781, which was manned by 25 troops from the 71st Regiment and Royal Artillery. The ordnance was eventually withdrawn in 1795. The census of 1677 indicated the Cole and Corum families as residing in "Tarr-Bay" Newfoundland. The following year the Field Family joined them. By 1794 the population of Torbay included many of the surnames now associated with Torbay and totalled 108 English settlers and 99 Irish settlers. The Way Office, a mail handling facility used where there was not enough business to warrant a full post office, was established in 1891. The early history of the community was further highlighted by the landing of Colonel William Amherst and his troops in 1762 on their way to re-capturing the capital city of St. John's from the French. This event was officially recognized in 1978 when the first mayor of Torbay, William Manning, unveiled a stone monument and plaque at the present day Veterans Memorial Park. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Torbay had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Geography Climate Economy The town of Torbay is a bedroom community, with most of the workforce commuting to the nearby cities of St. John's and Mount Pearl. No