Vancouver Population 2024

The latest population of Vancouver is 662,248.

Vancouver is the 8th largest city in Canada, and the largest in British Columbia. The city of Vancouver is home to one in every seven people living in BC.

The wider Metro Vancouver population is 2,642,845, making it the 3rd largest metro area in Canada, after the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Montreal. It is also the 31st largest metropolitan area in North America. This figure is from the 2021 census and represents an increase of 7.3% since the 2016 census (2,463,431).

Humans have been living in and around Vancouver for 8-10,000 years, but the city of Vancouver itself was first settled by European colonists in 1862 along the Fraser river, in present day Marpole. The city itself was incorporated on April 6, 1886.

Today Vancouver is is one of the most diverse cities in Canada, if not the whole of North America. Just over half it’s residents are from a visible minority group, and just under half are neither native English speakers nor native French speakers. It is a green city, regarded by many as one of the best cities in the world to live in. It is also the most expensive city in Canada to live in, and one of the most expensive places to buy houses in the world.

This article contains information about the wider demographics of Vancouver, it’s population growth over the years, languages used, ethnicity, immigration and religion.

Vancouver Population Growth

Vancouver’s population has grown rapidly in the last 125 years, although growth today is nothing like as fast as it was in the early 20th century. The table below details Vancouver’s population by year of census.

Vancouver’s population has increased between every census except once – between 1971-1976, when the population fell by 3.8%. This has been followed by another period of sustained growth since the 1980s.

Greater Vancouver Population

The total Greater Vancouver population is 2,642,845. It is home to more than half of all people living in the province of British Columbia.

The Greater Vancouver area is made up of a number of smaller cities. The largest of these is the city of Vancouver itself (population 631,486), followed closely by Surrey (population 517,887). There are four other cities in the metro area with a population of more than 100,000 – Burnaby, Richmond, Abbotsford and Coquitlam.

Largest cities in Metro Vancouver

Metro Vancouver is made up of 23 different areas – a mixture of cities, municipalities, and villages, plus one treaty First Nation and one Regional District Electoral Area – the catchily named ‘Electoral Area A’.

The largest city in the Metro Vancouver area is the city of Vancouver itself. However, it is closely followed by the city of Surrey, with a population of just over half a million people. Other major cities are Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, the Township of Langley and Delta City.

The table below lists each area and it’s population.

You can read more about each area at the Metro Vancouver website.

Ethnicity and Visible Minorities

Vancouver is one of the most diverse cities in Canada. According to the latest census, more than half of the people who live in Vancouver are from a visible minority. 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 table below breaks down the population of Vancouver by visible minority status.

The table below breaks down Vancouver’s population by household ethnic origin.