When talking about the population of Vancouver you’ll hear a few different numbers punted around, like when we were doing our research we thought it was around about 10 million. This figure is substantially more than the real figure, but you also have to define what you are talking about when it comes to population.
Size Comparison - Melbourne Vs. Vancouver
The downtown core of Vancouver itself, classified as the bit that’s on the peninsula and nothing else, has a bit over 600,000 people. Extending it out, the greater metropolitan area, which is classed as anywhere in between the four corners of Lions Bay, Delta, Langley and Maple Ridge contains almost 2.25 million people, which means it has about 1.5 million less people than Melbourne, Australia.
While this may seem like it could be a small city, the amazing thing about Vancouver is the population density – while Melbourne spreads its population out over 8,800 square kilometers of land, Vancouver squeezes its population into only 2,878km2. This leads to a population density in Vancouver of 5,335 people per square km versus Melbourne’s 1556 people per square km, and I’m sure that Vancouver is even more dense in the downtown area, in fact I’ve even heard that it is the most densely populated area in North America, not that I’ve exhaustively researched that fact.
When the population is that dense, there is only one option – build up instead of out. To this end the typical home in Vancouver seems to be either an apartment or condo, which is basically fitting as many places as you can onto a block while still giving everyone multiple stories and their own front door. Before I digress too much, for a more in depth look at housing in Vancouver check out the finding accommodation article.
Cultures in Vancouver
One of the things you will notice about Vancouver is that it is a melting pot for all sorts of cultures. Other people can probably define this better than me, so do a quick Google search and you’ll find the Vancouver Multicultural Society who say:
“Vancouver is one of the most culturally diverse cities in North America. It is home to a rich mixture of peoples from around the world, as well as Aboriginal peoples.”
Or as the Wikipedia article on Vancouver says:
“Vancouver has been called a "city of neighbourhoods", each with a distinct character and ethnic mix”
They also go on to say that those of Asian descent are the most visible, but there are many others, including Indian, Greek, Italian, British, Japanese and many more. Suffice to say that where ever you go you’ll find people from different areas of the world, all living together. There is even the statistic that 52% of downtown residents and 43% of metro Vancouver residents speak something other than English as their first language. The gay culture in Vancouver is also alive and well, so don’t be taken aback if you see some guys holding hands – it’s natural around here, and all good!
If you aren’t used to this, it takes a little bit of adjustment, but everyone seems be living pretty well together – there are some cultural clashes, but they are more than made up for by the extra facets these cultures bring to Vancouver. Of course there are some stereotypes, like you have to watch out for drivers from Richmond (which has a high Asian population), and the north shore is full of toffee nosed English (or descent of) people.
Vancouver Suburbs
I’ll run through a few of the suburbs I’m more familiar with and give a bit of a run down on what the stereotypes from there are, and for a good map of the suburbs check out this one on Wikipedia. From the top:
North Vancouver (which also has West Vancouver to its west – you have to be careful not to confuse that with the West End, which is on the western part of the downtown core itself) is a really nice area, with the buildings crawling up the faces of the mountains. A mostly anglo stronghold, the interesting fact about this area is that a big proportion of the land was purchased by the Guinness family at around the turn of the century (1900, not 2000!) for about a pound, so $2! They then subdivided it and built Lions Gate bridge in the 30s and 40s in order to get there and back. This is one of the richer parts of Vancouver, and as you go further up the mountains, the price of property gets higher and higher.
West End is basically the residential area of downtown Vancouver, with very high property prices and population density due to its proximity to Stanley Park, the seawall and its beaches and all of the other conveniences of downtown living.
Downtown itself is interesting, as there is some excellent shopping (Robson St), malls, parks and Gastown in the more central core, and then on the south side you have Yale Town where a lot of trendy folks live, on the south east side you have False Creek which is more family oriented and a recent development. On the north eastern side you have the East Side, which is the dirty and grungy underbelly of Downtown and has a very high proportion of homeless people. Some say it isn’t really very safe in this area, but you just have to look after yourself and be careful, particularly around the epicenter of Hastings and Main. Look, but don’t touch.
Kitsilano is where all the ex hippies who made it big live, so property prices are high, but the feel is quite retro with lots of little shops and some very nice beaches.
The UBC area west of Kitsilano is also an interesting area, segregated by the Pacific Spirit park. On the coast there are some nice beaches again, and keep an eye out for Wreck Beach, the local nude beach.
The rest of this area is pretty much made up by suburbia, with the notable highlights being the Main St and Cambie St areas, both of which have nice shops and restaurants and a good village atmosphere.
Further out to the east you’ll find Burnaby, which is its own city and spans a lot of suburbia. Burnaby is a good place to settle in when you first arrive in Vancouver, as long as you can find somewhere near the Sky Train. With a high Indian and Asian population, Burnaby is another melting pot, so be prepared to have neighbours that might be different to your usual Aussies. Actually, that pretty much goes for the whole of Vancouver.
South of Vancouver central you have Richmond, which is a peninsula city and hence is barely above sea level. From what I hear it is quite decent to live in Richmond and the conveniences are good too, but the only really interesting parts (to me anyway) of this suburbia is Steveston Village on the south west, where you will find a fascinating collection of shops, restaurants, whale watching tours and tourists, as well as Ikea on the north eastern side, just south of the Knight St bridge.
East of Richmond is Surrey and Delta, more suburbia, although I hear the housing is more affordable out there, but the commute to anywhere interesting kills that as a living area when you are only here for a few months or years in my book.
I’m sure I’ve missed suburbs/cities, but these are the stand out ones for me, and we’ll occasionally go into the facets of them throughout the rest of the articles here on CanAussie.
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