Vancouver is a coastal seaport city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2016 census recorded 631,486 people in the city, up from 603,502 in 2011. The Greater Vancouver area had a population of 2,463,431 in 2016, making it the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada with over 5,400 people per square kilometre, which makes it the fifth-most densely populated city with over 250,000 residents in North America behind New York City, Guadalajara, San Francisco, and Mexico City according to the 2011 census. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada according to that census; 52% of its residents have a first language other than English. Roughly 30% of the city's inhabitants are of Chinese heritage. Vancouver is classed as a Beta global city.
British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 5.016 million as of 2018, it is Canada's third-most populous province.
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.
The following table shows the development of the number of inhabitants according to census data of Statistics Canada. The former municipalities of Point Grey and South Vancouver are not included in the data prior to 1931.[1] NB Vancouver did not exist as such at the time of the 1881 and 1871 censuses.
A national census in Canada is conducted every five years by Statistics Canada. The census provides demographic and statistical data that is used to plan public services including health care, education, and transportation, determine federal transfer payments, and determine the number of Members of Parliament for each province and territory. At a sub-national level, two provinces and two territories have legislation that allows local governments to conduct their own municipal censuses.
Statistics Canada, formed in 1971, is the Government of Canada government agency commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. Its headquarters is in Ottawa. The Minister responsible for Statistics Canada is the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, currently Navdeep Bains.
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, of political philosophy, and of colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchangeably, for example, a cultural pluralism in which various ethnic groups collaborate and enter into a dialogue with one another without having to sacrifice their particular identities. It can describe a mixed ethnic community area where multiple cultural traditions exist or a single country within which they do. Groups associated with an aboriginal or autochthonous ethnic group and foreigner ethnic groups are often the focus.
History is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory. It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians.
From the time of Vancouver's first non-indigenous settlement in the second half of the 19th century, people from Britain and Ireland were the largest group of immigrants and, collectively, remain the largest ethnic grouping in Vancouver to this day. Chinese are by far the largest visible minority group, although ethnic Germans are the largest non-British or Irish group and, as census records show, only in the 21st Century were outnumbered by the Chinese for the first time. The city has one of the most diverse Chinese-speaking communities with several varieties of Chinese being represented. Vancouver contains the second-largest Chinatown in North America (after San Francisco's), and many multicultural neighbourhoods such as the Punjabi Market, Greektown, and Japantown. Commercial Drive, the core of the historic Little Italy, which is also the main Portuguese area, has become an alternative-culture focus, though traditional Italian and Portuguese and other establishments and residents remain in the area. Bilingual street signs can be seen in Chinatown and the Punjabi Market, and commercial signs in a wide array of languages can be seen all over the metropolitan area.
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2 (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island, and the ninth-largest island in the world. In 2011, Great Britain had a population of about 61 million people, making it the world's third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of Great Britain, and together these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands, form the British Isles archipelago.
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth.
The Han Chinese, Hanzu, Han people, are an East Asian ethnic group and nation native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population. The estimated 1.3 billion Han Chinese people are mostly concentrated in mainland China and in Taiwan. Han Chinese people also make up three quarters of the total population of Singapore.
As of around 2009, 3% of residents of Vancouver state that they have at least some ancestry from the First Nations, and of that 3% over 50% state that they also have non-First Nations ancestry. A person with some First Nations ancestry may not necessarily identify as someone who is First Nations.[3]
In Canada, the First Nations are the predominant indigenous peoples in Canada south of the Arctic Circle. Those in the Arctic area are distinct and known as Inuit. The Métis, another distinct ethnicity, developed after European contact and relations primarily between First Nations people and Europeans. There are 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.
There is a small community of aboriginal people in Vancouver as well as in the surrounding metropolitan region, with the result that Vancouver constitutes the largest native community in the province, albeit an unincorporated one (i.e. not as a band government).[citation needed] There is an equally large or larger Métis contingent.
British and European origins
Much of the white population consists of persons whose origins go back to the British Isles and, until recently, British Columbians with British and Irish ancestry most likely came directly from the British Isles, rather than via Ontario or the Maritime Provinces. Until the 1960s, it was easier to purchase the Timesof London and The Guardian in Vancouver than it was to find the Toronto Globe and MailorMontreal Gazette. Other large and historically important European ethnic groups consist of Germans, Dutch, French (of both European and Canadian origin), Ukrainians, Scandinavians, Finns, Italians, Croats, Hungarians, Greeks, and lately numerous Romanians, Russians, Portuguese, Serbs and Poles. Non-visible minorities such as newly arrived Eastern Europeans and the new wave of Latin Americans are also a feature of the city's ethnic landscape. Prior to the Hong Kong influx of the 1980s, the largest non-British Isles ethnic group in the city was German, followed by Ukrainian and the Scandinavian ethnicities. Most of these earlier immigrant groups are fully assimilated or intermarried with other groups, although a new generation of East Europeans form a distinct linguistic and social community.
The first Chinese immigrants to British Columbia were men who came to "the British Colonies of Canada," as they called British Columbia, for the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858 and a decade later to work on building the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Indian immigrants first arrived in Vancouver during the late 19th century.[4] Most Indo-Canadians in the Lower Mainland are Punjabi Sikhs. Surrey has the largest ethnic South Asian population in Metro Vancouver, at 32.4%. The neighbourhood at 120 Street and 73 Avenue in Surrey is 76.6% South Asian, the highest percentage of people of Indian descent in a neighbourhood in Metro Vancouver.[5]
Korean origins
As of 2014 there are about 70,000 ethnic Koreans in the Vancouver area.[6]
An H-Mart and several Korean restaurants are located on Robson Street.[7] As of 2008 there are many Korean national students at the university and primary/secondary levels studying English.[8] Other areas with Korean businesses include Kingsway in Vancouver, Burnaby, and New Westminster; other areas in Vancouver; North Road in Burnaby and Coquitlam, and areas of Port Coquitlam.[9] As of 2011 Coquitlam is a popular area of settlement for Koreans.[10]
Rimhak Ree (Yi Yimhak) came to Vancouver to study mathematics at the University of British Columbia in 1953, making him the first known ethnic Korean to live in the city.[11] There were about 50 ethnic Koreans in Vancouver in the mid-1960s. The first Korean United Church congregation in the city opened in 1965. Numbers of Korean immigration to Canada increased due to more permissive immigration laws established in the 1960s as well as the home country's political conflict and poverty. There were 1,670 ethnic Koreans in Vancouver by 1975, making up 16% of all ethnic Koreans in Canada and a 3000% increase from the mid-1960s population.[12] Korean immigration to Canada decreased after a more restrictive immigration law was enacted in 1978.[13]
Christianity is a popular religion among ethnic Koreans. About 200 Korean churches are in the Vancouver area.[6]
In 1986 Greater Vancouver had fewer than 5,000 ethnic Koreans. In 1991 the number had increased to 8,330. The number of ethnic Koreans in the Vancouver area increased by 69% in the period 1996 through 2001.[14] The number of university students from Korea choosing to study in Vancouver had become most of the Korean students studying in Canada by the late 1990s.[8] The first Korean grocery store in the North Road area opened in 2000.[9] In 2001 28,850 ethnic Koreans live in Greater Vancouver, and this increased to 44,825 according to the 2006 census.[14]
Canwest Global does a co-venture with the Canada Express, a Korean publication, to serve ethnic Koreans. It previously published a Korean edition of the Vancouver Sun but later stopped. Daniel Ahadi and Catherine A. Murray, authors of "Urban Mediascapes and Multicultural Flows: Assessing Vancouver’s Communication Infrastructure," wrote that the Korean edition of the Vancouver Sun was "error-fraught".[15]
In the city of Vancouver and four adjacent municipalities (Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond, and Coquitlam), there is no visible majority. Hence, the term visible minority is used here in contrast to the overall Canadian population which remains predominantly of European descent. In Metro Vancouver, at the 2016 census, 48.9% of the population were members of non-European ethnic groups and 48.6% were members of European ethnic groups. 2.5% of the population identified as First Nations (see table, below).
Vancouver has more interracial couples and less residential segregation than Canada's two largest cities, Toronto and Montreal. In total, 7.2% of married and common-law couples in Greater Vancouver are interracial; double the Canadian average of 3.2%, and higher than in Toronto (6.1%) and Montreal (3.5%).
The figures for Cantonese, Mandarin and Min Nan do not include 8,485 speakers of "Chinese (not otherwise specified)", some of whom may speak Cantonese, Mandarin or Min Nan. The total number of speakers of all varieties of Chinese is 385,355.
The figure for Hindi does not include 8,880 speakers of Urdu, see Hindi–Urdu controversy.
The 2011 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count revealed that there were at least 2,650 people found to be homeless in Metro Vancouver.[57] This particular homeless count is and continues to be conducted once every three years, taking place over a brief 24-hour period. The report published on these results stated, "It is important to note that all Homeless Counts are inherently undercounts and that the 2011 Metro Vancouver Count was no exception."[57] Nonetheless, these counts can be used as indicators to determine homelessness trends within Metro Vancouver. Between 2002 and 2005, "the count revealed that homelessness in the region nearly doubled from 1121 to 2174 persons".[58] From 2005 to 2008, the count revealed a much smaller increase in homelessness, from 2174 to 2660 persons. Thus, it should be noted that the count conducted in 2011 implies that the homeless population has remained relatively stable between 2008 and 2011.
Of the homeless people surveyed in 2011, "71% were sheltered in either an emergency shelter, safe house, transition house or temporary facility such as a hospital, jail or detoxification centre...while 29% slept in outdoor locations or at someone else's place".[57] 74 of the 2,650 homeless persons counted were children – those under the age of 19 – who accompanied a parent who was also homeless. Furthermore, of the homeless youth surveyed, 102 individuals were under the age of 19, 221 between the ages of 19–24, and 74 whose ages could not be identified, for a total of 397 homeless. Adults constituted the largest cohort of homeless in Metro Vancouver with 275 individuals between the ages of 25–34, 328 between the ages of 35–44, and 397 between the ages of 45–54, for a total of 1,000 homeless. Lastly, seniors – those above the age of 55 – constituted 268 homeless people. Of the 2,650 people identified in the count, ages for 985 people could not be provided.
Homelessness doesn't occur suddenly, rather it is a progression wherein an individual becomes part of the group of 'at risk' individuals, remains in this group for some time, and then, finally, becomes homeless due to economic hardships and social dislocation.[59] "Contemporary definitions split homelessness into two broad groups: 'absolute' homelessness, which refers to persons or households literally without physical shelter, and 'relative' homelessness, which includes a range of housing situations characterized as being at-risk of homelessness."[58] Indeed, being classified as at-risk of homelessness does not imply that an individual or household will become homeless in the future, only that various pre-conditions exist that may lead to this.[60] These pre-conditions include, but are not restricted to the following: people living in SROs (Single Room Occupancy), people living in rooming houses, and people paying more than 50% of their net income towards housing costs.[59] "Two-thirds of responses from homeless individuals enumerated in a recent homeless count in Greater Vancouver cited economic reasons for their being homeless – with lack of income and cost of housing accounting for 44% and 22% of responses respectively."[60]
Housing affordability has and continues to be the top priority housing issue Vancouverites must resolve. In 1996, a study published by BC Housing revealed that 25% of renter households in Vancouver pay 50% or more of their incomes to rent.[59] The core housing need model, developed by the CMHC, uses a threshold of households spending at least 30% of their income on shelter costs to illuminate households experiencing acute housing affordability needs. "Moving from the 30% shelter cost-to-income ratio (STIR) used in the core housing need model, to a 50% threshold, typically reduces the number of households identified by more than half."[58] In 2001, Statistics Canada published a study using both the 30% and 50% thresholds to identify renters and homeowners facing unaffordable housing costs in Metro Vancouver. This study revealed that 8.1% of homeowners and 27.8% of renters exceeded the 30% threshold, while 4.0% of homeowners and 10.8% of renters exceeded the 50% threshold. More in depth still, this study also found that 18.5% of immigrants living in Vancouver exceeded the 30% threshold and 8.0% exceed the 50% threshold. Only 11.3% and 4.8% of Canadian born households exceeded the 30% and 50% thresholds, respectively.
Heather Smith and David Ley found that in Canada's gateway cities, "the appreciable growth of the low-income population during the 1990s was almost entirely attributable to the growing poverty of recent immigrants".[61] They go on to state, "adult immigrants who had landed in the previous decade endured a poverty rate of...37 percent in Vancouver".[61] Immigrants, recent and old, therefore constitute a large proportion of households in Metro Vancouver considered to be at-risk of homelessness. Analysis conducted by Robert Fiedler revealed that, in 2001, "29.1% of persons in households...in Greater Vancouver are below more than one CMHC housing standard, indicating that...some households not only must spend an unsustainably high proportion of their income on shelter costs, but must also live in overcrowded and/or substandard conditions to access housing".[60] Although many new immigrants to Canada come from educated backgrounds, many having bachelor's degrees, they are paid less on average than Canadian born individuals and "Over the past 25 years, the incomes of recent immigrants to Canada have progressively declined relative to the native-born."[62]
Recently, the City of Vancouver released a new strategy targeting homelessness and affordable housing. The strategy will be enacted in 2012 and will run until 2021, with the goal of ending street homelessness completely by 2015, as well as increasing affordable housing choices for all Vancouverites. The City of Vancouver indicates that from 2002 to 2011, "homelessness has increased nearly three-fold" from approximately 628 homeless in 2002, to 1,605 homeless in 2011.[63] The strategy goes on to report that SRO rooms are increasingly being lost to conversions and rent increases even though SRO hotels constitute a majority of Vancouver's lowest income housing stock. As Robert Fiedler noted in 2006, "renters are disproportionately located in the City of Vancouver, which contains only 27.8% of the area's total population, but 40.2% of all renters".[60] Furthermore, low vacancy rates in Vancouver's market rental stock, a decreasing new supply of apartments in recent decades, and a widening gap of household incomes and housing prices are just a few challenges that must be overcome. By 2021, the City of Vancouver hopes to enable 5,000 additional social housing units, 11,000 new market rental-housing units, and 20,000 market ownership units.[63]
Vancouver, like the rest of British Columbia, has a low rate of church attendance compared with the rest of the continent and the majority of the population does not practice religion.[65][66] It has a significant Buddhist population, mostly adherents from China.[citation needed]
↑ Bloemraad, Irene. "Diversity and Elected Officials in the City of Vancouver" (Chapter 2). In: Andrew, Caroline, John Biles, Myer Siemiatycki, and Erin Tolley (editors). Electing a Diverse Canada: The Representation of Immigrants, Minorities, and Women. UBC Press, July 1, 2009. ISBN0774858583, 9780774858588. Start p. 46. CITED: p. 68.
1 2 3 4 Fiedler, Robert (2006). Geographies of Immigrants at Risk for Homelessness in Greater Vancouver (M.A. thesis). Simon Fraser University. p.108.
1 2 Smith, Heather; Ley (25 June 2008). "Even in Canada? The Multiscalar Construction and Experience of Concentrated Immigrant Poverty in Gateway Cities". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 3. 98: 27. doi:10.1080/00045600802104509.
↑ Moore, Eric; Pacey (25 June 2008). "Changing Income Inequality and Immigration in Canada, 1980-1995". Canadian Public Policy. 1. 29: 19. JSTOR3552487.
Surrey is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada, located south of the Fraser River and north of the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Surrey is the province's second-largest by population after Vancouver and the third largest by area after Abbotsford and Prince George.
Burnaby is a city in British Columbia, Canada, located immediately to the east of Vancouver. It is the third-largest city in British Columbia by population, surpassed only by nearby Surrey and Vancouver.
Metro Vancouver is a political body and corporate entity designated by provincial legislation as one of the regional districts in British Columbia, Canada. The official legal name is the Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD), the organization was formerly known as the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) from 1968 to 2017. Further, it was known as the Regional District of Fraser–Burrard for nearly one year upon incorporating in 1967.
Coquitlam is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Coquitlam, mainly a suburban city, is the sixth-largest city in the province with a population of 139,284 in 2016. and one of the 21 municipalities comprising Metro Vancouver. The current mayor of Coquitlam is Richard Stewart.
Port Coquitlam is a city in British Columbia, Canada. Located 27 km (17 mi) east of Vancouver, it is on the north bank of the confluence of the Fraser River and the Pitt River. Coquitlam borders it on the north, the Coquitlam River borders it on the west, and the city of Pitt Meadows lies across the Pitt River. Port Coquitlam is almost entirely bisected by Lougheed Highway. Port Coquitlam is often referred to as "PoCo." It is Canada's 88th-largest city by population. Port Coquitlam is not to be confused with the adjacent and larger Coquitlam.
Greater Vancouver, also known as Metro Vancouver, is the metropolitan area with its major urban centre being the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The term "Greater Vancouver" is roughly coterminous with the geographic area governed by the Metro Vancouver Regional District, though it predates the 1966 creation of the regional district. It is often used to include areas beyond the boundaries of the regional district but does not generally include wilderness and agricultural areas within that regional district.
A visible minority is defined by the Government of Canada as "persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour". The term is used primarily as a demographic category by Statistics Canada, in connection with that country's Employment Equity policies. The qualifier "visible" was chosen by the Canadian authorities as a way to single out newer immigrant minorities from both Aboriginal Canadians and other "older" minorities distinguishable by language and religion, which are "invisible" traits.
Burnaby—New Westminster was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015.
New Westminster was a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1871 to 1979.
The Tri-Cities are an informal grouping of the three adjacent suburban cities Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, along with the two villages of Anmore and Belcarra in the north-east sector of Metro Vancouver in British Columbia. Combined, these five communities have a 2016 population of 234,300 residents:
East Vancouver is a region within the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to the east by the city of Burnaby. East Vancouver is divided from Vancouver's "West Side" by Ontario St.
Korean Canadians are Canadians who are of full or partial Korean descent, It also includes Canadian-born Koreans. According to South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, there were 240,942 ethnic Koreans or people of Korean descent in Canada as of 2017, making them the fourth-largest Korean diaspora population.
Visible minorities have become highly concentrated in Vancouver and its suburbs. The proportion of visible minorities in Vancouver increased from 14 percent to 37 percent of the population between 1981 and 2001. Vancouver has less residential segregation of its ethnic minorities compared to older Canadian cities such as Montreal. However, the city does exhibit some residential segregation, as demographic data shows visible minority concentrations vary by neighbourhood in Vancouver. In general, East Vancouver has higher visible minority concentrations than Vancouver westside. Higher visible minority concentrations are also found in nearby suburbs such as Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby and New Westminster. Most recent immigrants choose to locate in peripheral neighborhoods in Greater Vancouver. It is speculated that Canada's multiculturalism policies may have prevented greater segregation from the dominant groups, both in terms of residential location and in the labour market.
Homelessness in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is a social crisis that has been rapidly accelerating over the last decade. According to the United Nations, homelessness can either be relative or absolute. Absolute homelessness describes people living in absence of proper physical shelter. Relative homelessness describes people living in poor conditions of health or security, including an absence of both personal safety and steady income despite having physical shelter to reside in. As of 2011, roughly 2,651 people in Vancouver are subject to one of these types of homelessness, or are transitioning between them. Homelessness as a social issue in Vancouver originated from federal funding cuts to affordable housing. After market housing increased, the cost of housing became one of Vancouver's main causes of homelessness, alongside lack of income. The homeless population in Vancouver have developed or previously suffered from mental health and addiction issues, and they are subjected to high amounts of crime-related victimization. There have been several approaches to reducing the homeless population in Greater Vancouver by the city and other organizations. As of 2011, the rate of homelessness in Vancouver has stopped increasing, but it is not being reduced either.
South Asian Canadians in Metro Vancouver form the third-largest ethnic group in the region, comprising 291,005 or 12% of the total population. Sizable South Asian communities exist within the city of Vancouver along with the adjoining city of Surrey, which houses one of the world's largest South Asian enclaves.
Sikhism in Greater Vancouver, is one of the main religions across the region, especially among the Indo-Canadian population. The Sikh community in Vancouver is the oldest, largest and most influential across Canada, having began in the late 19th century. By 1995, Vancouver had one of the two largest Sikh populations in the world that are not in India. In 2003, the Sikhs became the largest group in Greater Vancouver who did not practice Christianity.
Chinese Canadians are a sizable part of the population in Greater Vancouver, especially in the Chinese communities in the city of Vancouver and the adjoining suburban city of Richmond. The legacy of Chinese immigration is prevalent throughout the Vancouver area.
Punjabi Canadians are Canadian citizens whose heritage originates wholly or partly in the Punjab, a region in northern South Asia, which encompasses India and Pakistan. There are large Punjabi communities in British Columbia, concentrated in Metro Vancouver, and Ontario, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area.
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