Live in Country Hills
A 1990 community above West Nose Creek, with the golf club that shares its name and Vivo minutes away.
Country Hills was established in 1990 on land annexed in 1979, in the first wave of communities north of Beddington Trail. It is modest in size: 1.9 km², 3,660 residents in 1,405 private households at the 2021 census, on streets that went up almost all at once, with 80% of the occupied dwellings built between 1991 and 2000. Median household income was $97,000 in 2020, a shade under the city's $98,000, and 15% of households rent. It is also an older community than its neighbours in the north: 16% of residents are 65 or over, against 13% city-wide.
Above the creek, beside the golf course
Bounded north by Country Hills Boulevard, south by Beddington Trail and east by Harvest Hills Boulevard. Ward 3.
Country Hills was established in 1990 on land annexed in 1979, in the first wave north of Beddington Trail. It stayed small: 3,660 residents in 1,405 private households at the 2021 census, on 1.9 km². The City's last civic census, in 2019, had counted 3,767.
The numbers are quietly ordinary: median household income of $97,000 in 2020, a shade under the city's $98,000, and 15% of households renting. What sets the community apart is that it went up all at once and has aged in place: 80% of occupied dwellings were built between 1991 and 2000, none at all since 2015, and 16% of residents are 65 or over against 13% city-wide.
The community's two edges define it: the Country Hills Golf Club, whose clubhouse and full course opened in 1999, and West Nose Creek green its northern side, while the Country Hills Boulevard retail carries the everyday across the road. Vivo for Healthier Generations, at 11950 Country Village Link NE, holds the pools, ice arenas, climbing walls, an indoor park and the Country Hills Library branch under one roof.
- Four in five occupied dwellings date from 1991 to 2000, so builds of that era carry that era's homework: verify the plumbing
- Original roofs and furnaces are at replacement age where not yet done
- No CTrain: the planned Green Line north leg remains a plan. Budget for the bus or the drive
- Airport flight paths cross the city's north: listen at different times of day
How Country Hills got here
- 1979The land is annexed by the City of Calgary.
- 1990Country Hills is established north of Beddington Trail.
- 1999The Country Hills Golf Club's clubhouse and fully developed course open, ten years after construction began in 1989 and seven after an initial opening in 1992.
- 2019The City's last civic census counts 3,767 residents in 1,435 dwellings, 1,399 of them occupied.
- 2021The federal census records 3,660 residents in 1,405 private households: 85% owner households and 15% renter, 80% of occupied dwellings built between 1991 and 2000, and a median household income of $97,000 in 2020.
A creek, a course and the big hill beyond
West Nose Creek threads the community with a valley pathway, the golf club keeps the north edge green, and Nose Hill Park is eight to twelve minutes southwest for the full grassland experience.
What the map does not show: the creek pathway is the underrated one. It connects south toward Confluence Park and the Nose Creek system, flat enough for small bikes the whole way.
Elsewhere in Calgary, not Country Hills
11 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–11 of 11 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the centre of the community to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. North-central geography: the airport reads close, downtown reads far, and Centre Street does the daily work.
Every gym within reach
Vivo across the boulevard does the heavy lifting. Confirm hours before you count on anything.
- Leisure and lane pools, ice arenas, climbing and bouldering walls, an indoor park and the Country Hills Library inside
- Thornhill Aquatic is the second city facility, south on Centre Street
- The golf club covers the summer season
- The creek pathway is the free option
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Vivo for Healthier Generations open | The north-central anchor: leisure and lane pools, hot tub, sauna, ice arenas, climbing and bouldering walls, gymnasiums, an indoor park and a library branch. | 5–8 min |
| Thornhill Aquatic & Recreation Centre open | City-run pool, gymnasium and fitness centre on Centre Street north. | 8–11 min |
| Country Hills Golf Club open | The community's namesake course along the creek; its clubhouse and full layout opened in 1999. | 3–4 min |
| West Nose Creek pathway open | Free option: the creek-valley pathway connects toward Confluence Park. | 1–3 min |
Vivo membership is the practical default here. It is closer than any commercial club.
Designated schools sit in the neighbouring communities
No school sits inside Country Hills. Its designated schools sit around it, in Coventry Hills, Harvest Hills and the wider north-central cluster, including North Trail High School, which describes itself on its own site as a new school and publishes no attendance area.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Elementary designations nearby | Calgary Board of Education | No CBE school sits inside Country Hills; students are designated to schools in the surrounding north-central communities. Confirm for a specific address. |
| North Trail High School | Calgary Board of Education | Calgary Board of Education high school in Coventry Hills, which describes itself as a new school. Its site publishes neither a grade range nor an attendance area. |
| St. Clare Elementary | Calgary Catholic | Catholic elementary in neighbouring Coventry Hills. The Calgary Catholic School District's site refuses automated clients, so nothing here was read from the district. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. Confirm the current designation for a specific address with the board. North-central designations have shifted with growth, and the Calgary Catholic School District's site refuses automated clients, so nothing on the Catholic side here was read from the district itself.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Vivo carries the winter: pools, track and library under one roof
- Priority snow routes keep the main roads clear
- Indoor recreation carries the season
- Long dark evenings, but rarely for weeks at a stretch
- Ski traffic west on the Trans-Canada peaks on Friday and Sunday
- Coldest snaps usually break with a chinook
- Noticeably longer light by month end
- Indoor pools at their busiest
- Melt and refreeze on the side streets: ice cleats weather
- Pathways reopen as the snow goes
- First patio afternoons on the warm chinook days
- Street sweeping begins late in the month
- Last hard frosts: planting waits for the May long weekend
- Pathway and park season opens properly
- Garden centres open across the quadrant
- Migratory birds return to the parks
- Long evenings: sunset past 9pm by month end
- Lilacs and crabapples through the older streets
- Field sport seasons start on the community greens
- First genuinely warm stretches
- Peak daylight at the solstice: over 16 hours
- School year ends and the parks fill
- Evening thunderstorms begin building over the foothills
- Farmers' markets open for the season
- Calgary Stampede: about 25 minutes south
- Hottest month, with cool nights at this elevation
- Evening thunderstorms roll off the foothills
- Canada Day events in the parks
- Folk Festival on Prince's Island mid-month
- Kananaskis and Banff at their best, straight west
- Quietest weeks before school returns
- Smoke from western wildfires is possible
- School year restarts and morning traffic thickens
- First frost typically arrives late in the month
- Poplar and aspen colour begins
- Evenings shorten fast
- Peak autumn colour through the older tree-lined streets
- First snow is normal, and normally melts
- Snow tires go on across the quadrant
- Nose Hill's grasses turn gold
- Ski season opens west on the Trans-Canada
- Dark by 5pm
- Freeze sets in for good
- Holiday retail season begins
- Chinook arches over the western skyline on clear days
- Holiday lights through the community streets
- Outdoor rinks open when the freeze holds
- Quiet, short days between the holidays
30 more photographs of Calgary and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Calgary photo library, not photographs of Country Hills itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 30 photographs.
Honesty note. This page uses only the general Calgary, seasonal, Alberta-wildlife and day-trip photography from the site's shared library. Nothing here is presented as a photograph of Country Hills itself.