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Part One: Introduction

Part Three: Living
in Vancouver

Part Four: City
Government and
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Vancouver and its People

Though Vancouver is a relatively new city, aboriginal people have been living here for at least 8,000 years. The Coast Salish people, including the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, who still live here today, dwelt in villages throughout the area and thrived on a land and sea rich with resources. The first Europeans to arrive were Spanish explorers, who came by ship in 1791. They were followed a year later by an English ship under the command of Captain Vancouver, for whom the city was later named. In 1808, the explorer Simon Fraser reached the mouth of the Fraser River by land from the east.

European settlement started in the 1860s and increased rapidly after the completion of the cross-Canada railroad in 1886, the year of Vancouver’s founding. The railway’s western terminus was in Vancouver. Over the following 100 years, Vancouver experienced several periods of rapid growth. The Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s and early 1900s, post-war booms after the First and Second World Wars, the 1960s, the late 1980s and early 1990s all brought new people, new buildings and new opportunities for even greater success to Vancouver.

In 1986, the City celebrated its 100th birthday with Expo 86, a world exposition that attracted millions of visitors from around the world.

Though it has a rich indigenous heritage, Vancouver has been a city of newcomers from many different cultures since non-Native peoples began settling in the area. Early sawmill workers and local merchants came from all over Europe, China and Africa. The 1911 census showed that Vancouver was a city of immigrants, with most people born outside of Canada.

Vancouver remains a city of newcomers. The 2001 census found that 46% of Vancouver residents say they are immigrants. More than two-thirds of all recent immigrants have come from Asian countries. From 1996 to 2001, the largest numbers of immigrants arriving in Vancouver were of Chinese, South Asian and Filipino backgrounds.

June 1886, City Hall in a tent three days after the great fire

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Vancouver's
Neighbourhoods

Comments or questions? Send us e-mail at baldwin.wong@vancouver.ca.

© 2002, City of Vancouver, Community Services, Social Planning
Last Modified: Monday, July 12, 2004