 Kitchener and Waterloo are often jointly referred to as "Kitchener–Waterloo", "KW", or the "Twin Cities" (when the reference includes the nearby city of Cambridge, Ontario, the term "Tri-Cities" or "the Tri-City" are used).While there were several unsuccessful attempts to combine the municipalities of Kitchener and Waterloo, following the 1973 establishment of the Region of Waterloo there was less motivation to do so.At the time of the 2016 census, the population of Waterloo was 104,986.