Demographics of Metro Vancouver
Many immigrants from Hong Kong made Vancouver their home following the transfer of sovereignty of that former British colony from the United Kingdom to China. This continued a tradition of immigration from around the world that had already established Vancouver as the second most multi-ethnic of Canada's cities (after Toronto) before the Hong Kong influx began. Statistics Canada data shows that over 17% of the approximately 2.5 million people living in the metropolitan area are ethnic Chinese. The ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong who speak Cantonese make up the largest group within Vancouver's Chinese-speaking community. However, the Chinese-speaking community is also represented by people who speak dialects such as Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, Shanghainese, and Teochiu. Immigration from Taiwan increased in the late 1980's and peaked in the 1990's. The most recent are perhaps Chinese immigrants directly from Mainland China. Other significant Asian ethnic groups in Vancouver are Vietnamese, Filipino, Cambodian, Japanese, and Russians from the Russian Far East and Siberia. The term Asian in Vancouver often is used to refer to only East Asian peoples. South Asians (mostly Punjabis) are usually referred to as Indo-Canadian. Theoretically, though, Asian could refer to both groups and also to the large Persian and other Middle Eastern populations as well as a new element from Central Asia.
Non-visible minorities such as newly-arrived Eastern Europeans and the new wave of Latin American arrivals are also a feature of the city's ethnic landscape. Prior to the Hong Kong influx of the 1980s, the largest non-British ethnic group in the city was German, followed by Ukrainian and the Scandinavian ethnicities. Most 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.
Much of the European population consists of persons whose origins go back to the U.K. and until recently it was a truism that British Columbians with UK ancestry most likely have that directly from the British Isles, rather than via Ontario or the Maritime Provinces. Until the 1960s it was in fact easier to purchase the London Times and the Manchester Guardian in Vancouver than it was to find the Toronto Globe and Mail or Montreal Gazette. Other large and historically important European ethnic groups consist of Germans, Dutch, French (of both European and Canadian origin), Ukrainians, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Finns, Italians, Croats, Hungarians, Greeks, and lately numerous Russians, Serbs and Poles.
There is also a sizable 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). There is an equally-large or larger Métis contingent, with these being a mix of traditional "real" Metis from the Prairies and others whose mixed native/non-native ancestry qualifies them legally as Metis.
Vancouver is one of the most integrated cities in the world. It has more interracial couples and less residential segregation than Canada's two largest cities, Toronto and Montreal. In total, 7.2 per cent of married and common-law couples in Greater Vancouver are interracial -- double the Canadian average of 3.2 per cent, and higher than in Toronto (6.1 per cent) and Montreal (3.5 per cent). Among Vancouver couples in their 20s, 12.9 per cent are of mixed-race.
In the City of Vancouver, just under half—49.0%— are members of visible minority groups. The largest groups are:
- Chinese: 29.9%
- South Asian (Indo-Canadian): 5.7%
- Filipino: 4.1%
- Southeast Asian: 2.5%
- Japanese: 1.5%
- Korean: 1.1%
- Black: 0.9%
- Multiple response (mixed-race): 0.8%
- West Asian (Iranian, Afghani): 0.6%
Aboriginal peoples, who make up 1.9% of the City of Vancouver's population, are not officially considered a visible minority group by Statistics Canada.