Demographics of British Columbia

Population of British Columbia 5.071 million (2019)

Canada British Columbia Density 2016

Percentage of National Population: 13.2% (unchanged)

Population Growth Rate: 5.6%

Vital statistics

Birth rate: 9.7 births per 1,000[1] (Canadian average ≈ 11)

Death rate: 2.3 deaths per 1,000

Infant mortality rate: 4.0 deaths per 1,000 live births[2]

Life expectancy at birth: 81.12 years[3]

Total fertility rate: 1.4 children born per woman[4] (Canadian average = 1.61)

Population of British Columbia since 1851

Year	Population	Five year % change	Ten year % change	Rank among provinces
1851	55,000	n/a	n/a	n/a
1861	51,524	n/a	-6.3	n/a
1871	36,247	n/a	-29.7	7
1881	49,459	n/a	36.4	8
1891	98,173	n/a	98.5	8
1901	178,657	n/a	82.0	6
1911	392,480	n/a	119.7	6
1921	524,582	n/a	33.7	6
1931	694,263	n/a	32.3	6
1941	817,861	n/a	17.8	4
1951	1,165,210	n/a	42.5	3
1956	1,398,464	20.0	n/a	3
1961	1,629,082	16.5	39.8	3
1966	1,873,674	15.0	34.0	3
1971	2,184,620	16.6	34.1	3
1976	2,466,610	12.9	31.6	3
1981	2,744,467	11.3	25.6	3
1986	2,883,370	5.1	16.9	3
1991	3,282,061	13.8	19.6	3
1996	3,724,500	13.5	29.2	3
2001	3,907,738	4.9	19.1	3
2006	4,113,487	5.4	10.4	3
2011	4,400,057	7.0	12.6	3
2016	4,648,055	5.6	13.0	3

Source: Statistics Canada[5]

Age structure

	Males		Females
Age Group	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
0-4	105,808	2.4%	100,116	2.2%
5-9	117,909	2.8%	111,383	2.6%
10-14	133,809	3.1%	126,388	3.0%
15-19	143,449	3.4%	136,227	3.2%
20-24	155,369	3.7%	147,770	3.5%
25-29	139,521	3.3%	138,299	3.3%
30-34	144,788	3.4%	145,869	3.4%
35-39	155,429	3.7%	158,364	3.7%
40-44	177,381	4.2%	179,216	4.2%
45-49	172,786	4.1%	177,082	4.2%
50-54	157,596	3.7%	159,965	3.8%
55-59	138,096	3.2%	139,772	3.3%
60-64	101,610	2.4%	103,764	2.4%
65-69	80,051	1.9%	82,363	1.9%
70-74	70,060	1.6%	72,493	1.7%
75-79	54,572	1.3%	64,344	1.5%
80-84	36,304	0.8%	53,047	1.2%
85+	24,544	0.6%	48,978	1.1%
Totals	2,109,082	49.6%	2,145,440	50.4%

Source: BCStats[6]

Ethnicity

British Columbia has a very diverse ethnic population. First-generation immigrants from the British Isles remain a strong component of local society despite limitations on immigration from Britain since the ending of special status for British subjects in the 1960s. Also present in large numbers relative to other cities in Canada (except Toronto), and also present in BC ever since the province was first settled (unlike Toronto), are many European ethnicities of the first and second generation, notably Germans, Ukrainians, Scandinavians, Yugoslavs and Italians; third-generation Europeans are generally of mixed lineage, and traditionally intermarried with other ethnic groups more than in any other Canadian province.

In recent decades, the proportion of those of Chinese and Indian ethnicity has risen sharply, though still outnumbered by the historically-strong population of those of German ancestry. Visible minorities have become an important factor in ethnic-based politics, though most visible minorities are less numerous than the long-standing non-British European ethnicities making up BC's "invisible minorities".

Note: The following statistics represent both single (e.g., "German") and multiple (e.g., "part Chinese, part English") responses to the 2006 and 2016 Census, and thus add up to more than 100%.

Ethnic Origin	Population (2016)[7]	Percent (2016)	Population (2006)[8]	Percent (2006)
English	1,203,540	26.39%	1,207,245	29.63%
Canadian	866,530	19%	720,200	17.67%
Scottish	860,775	18.88%	828,145	20.32%
Irish	675,135	14.80%	618,120	15.17%
German	603,265	13.23%	561,570	13.78%
Chinese	540,155	11.84%	432,435	10.60%
French	388,815	8.53%	361,215	8.86%
Indian	309,315	6.78%	232,370	5.70%
Ukrainian	229,205	5.03%	197,265	4.84%
First Nations	220,245	4.83%	193,060	4.74%
Dutch (Netherlands)	213,670	4.69%	196,420	4.82%
Italian	166,095	3.64%	143,155	3.51%
Polish	149,635	3.28%	128,360	3.15%
Norwegian	138,430	3.04%	129,420	3.18%
Russian	131,060	2.87%	114,105	2.80%
Welsh	113,905	2.5%	104,275	2.56%
Swedish	110,030	2.41%	104,025	2.55%
Filipino	158,215	3.47%	94,255	2.3%
Métis	90,515	1.98%	62,570	1.5%
American (USA)	78,170	1.71%	66,765	1.6%
Spanish	64,470	1.41%	52,640	1.3%
Korean	63,300	1.39%	51,860	1.3%
Danish	58,205	1.28%	56,125	1.4%
Hungarian (Magyar)	56,535	1.24%	49,870	1.2%
Japanese	51,150	1.12%	41,585	1.0%
Austrian	48,510	1.06%	46,620	1.1%
Iranian	47,985	1.05%	29,265	0.7%
Portuguese	41,770	0.92%	34,660	0.9%
Vietnamese	41,435	0.91%	30,835	0.8%
Punjabi	38,725	0.85%	18,525	0.5%
Finnish	34,150	0.75%	29,875	0.7%
Swiss	31,390	0.69%	28,240	0.7%
Romanian	31,250	0.69%	25,670	0.6%
Icelandic	26,410	0.58%	22,110	0.5%
Greek	24,460	0.54%	21,770	0.5%
Croatian	23,845	0.52%	18,815	0.5%
Czech	23,375	0.51%	21,150	0.5%
Belgian	19,980	0.44%	17,510	0.4%
Jewish	17,580	0.39%	30,830	0.8%

Projections

Ethnic origin by regional group

Group	2016[9]		2036[10][11]
	Number	% of 2016 population (4,560,240)	Number	% of 2036 estimated population (5,709,000)
European origins	2,908,420	63.8%	2,907,000	50.9%
East and Southeast Asian origins	820,065	18%	1,339,000	23.5%
South Asian and Middle Eastern origins	434,240	9.5%	767,000	13.5%
Aboriginal origins	270,585	5.9%	428,000	7.5%
Latin, Central and South American origins	44,115	1%	91,000	1.6%
African origins	43,500	1%	80,000	1.4%
Other	49,225	1.1%	97,000	1.7%
*Percentages total over 100% due to multiple responses, e.g. German-Indian, Norwegian-Irish.

Indo-Canadians

Visible minorities and Aboriginal Peoples

Note: Statistics Canada defines visible minorities as defined in the Employment Equity Act which defines visible minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour".

Visible minority and Aboriginal population (Canada 2016 Census)
Population group		Population	% of total population
European		2,908,420	63.8%
Visible minority group Source:[12]	South Asian	365,705	8%
	Chinese	508,480	11.2%
	Black	43,500	1%
	Filipino	145,025	3.2%
	Latin American	44,115	1%
	Arab	19,840	0.4%
	Southeast Asian	54,920	1.2%
	West Asian	48,695	1.1%
	Korean	60,495	1.3%
	Japanese	51,145	1.1%
	Visible minority, n.i.e.	8,760	0.2%
	Multiple visible minority	40,465	0.9%
Total visible minority population		1,381,235	30.3%
Aboriginal group Source:[13]	First Nations	172,520	3.8%
	Métis	89,405	2%
	Inuit	1,610	0%
	Aboriginal, n.i.e.	2,695	0.1%
	Multiple Aboriginal identity	4,350	0.1%
Total Aboriginal population		270,585	5.9%
Total population		4,560,240	100%

Migration

Immigration

A large number of immigrants have lived in British Columbia for 30 years or less.[7]

Immigrants to British Columbia by place of birth (2011 to 2016)[14]
Rank	Country	Population #	% of immigrants
1	China	38,110	21.7%
2	India	27,460	15.6%
3	Philippines	26,685	15.2%
4	Iran	8,645	4.9%
5	South Korea	8,025	4.6%
6	United Kingdom	6,535	3.7%
7	United States	6,485	3.7%
8	Mexico	2,880	1.6%
9	Taiwan	2,505	1.4%
10	Japan	2,285	1.3%
11	Syria	2,185	1.2%
12	Pakistan	1,960	1.1%
13	Australia	1,920	1.1%
14	Iraq	1,910	1.1%
15	Hong Kong	1,805	1.0%

Interprovincial Migration

Number of Years each Provinces and Territories had with positive interprovincial immigration since 1971

British Columbia has also traditionally been gaining from interprovincial migration. Over the last 50 years, British Columbia had 12 years of negative interprovincial immigration: the lowest in the country. The only time the province significantly lost population to this phenomenon was during the 1990s, when it had a negative interprovincial migration for 5 consecutive years.[15]

Interprovincial migration in British Columbia

	In-migrants	Out-migrants	Net migration
2009–10	49,469	40,741	8,728
2010–11	47,854	44,433	3,421
2011–12	48,593	51,304	−2,711
2012–13	43,830	45,698	−1,868
2013–14	52,281	42,806	9,475
2014–15	61,026	40,647	20,379
2015–16	63,788	37,215	26,573
2016–17	57,210	38,376	18,834
2017–18	55,300	41,311	13,989
2018–19	55,612	49,501	6,111
2019–20	71,180	61,122	10,058

Source: Statistics Canada[16]

Religions

Religion in British Columbia (2011)[17]

  Christian (44.6%)

  Irreligious (44.1%)

  Sikh (4.7%)

  Buddhist (2.1%)

  Muslim (1.8%)

  Hindu (1.1%)

  Jewish (0.5%)

  Other (1.0%)

The largest denominations by number of adherents according to the 2011 census were Christianity with 1,930,415 (44.6%); Irreligion (atheist, agnostic, and so on.) with 1,908,285 (44.1%); Sikhism with 201,110 (4.7%); Buddhism with 90,620(2.1%); Islam with 79,310 (1.8%); and Hinduism with 45,795 (1.1%).

Population by religion, Canada and BC (2011 Census)	Canada		B.C.
	number	%	number	%
Total population	32,852,320	100%	4,324,455	100%
No religious affiliation	7,850,605	23.9%	1,908,285	44.1%
Christian	22,102,745	67.3%	1,930,415	44.6%
Sikh	454,965	1.4%	201,110	4.7%
Buddhist	366,830	1.1%	90,620	2.1%
Muslim	1,053,945	3.2%	79,310	1.8%
Hindu	497,960	1.5%	45,795	1.1%
Jewish	329,495	1%	23,130	0.5%
Traditional (Aboriginal) Spirituality	64,935	0.2%	10,295	0.2%
Other religions	130,835	0.4%	35,500	0.8%
Source: Statistics Canada 2011 Census [18]

Languages

Knowledge of languages

Knowledge of official languages of Canada in British Columbia
Language			Percent
English only			89.77%
French only			0.04%
English and French			6.85%
Neither English nor French			3.35%

The question on knowledge of languages allows for multiple responses. The following figures are from the 2016 Canadian Census, and lists languages that were selected by at least one per cent of respondents.

Language	Responses	%
English	4,560,235	96.60
French	314,225	6.89
Mandarin	265,635	5.83
Punjabi	244,485	5.36
Cantonese	234,445	5.14
Spanish	115,115	2.52
Tagalog	113,265	2.48
German	95,005	2.08
Hindi	81,330	1.78
Korean	57,490	1.26
Persian	49,835	1.09

Mother tongue

Figures shown are for the number of single language responses and the percentage of total single-language responses. Numerous other languages were also counted, but only languages with more than 2,000 native speakers are shown.

Language	2016 Census	%	2006 Census	%
English	3,170,110	70.5%	2,875,770	71.5%
Punjabi	198,805	4.4%	158,750	3.9%
Cantonese	193,530	4.3%	131,245	3.3%
Mandarin	186,325	4.1%	72,160	1.8%
Tagalog (Filipino)	78,770	1.8%	50,425	1.3%
German	66,885	1.5%	86,690	2.2%
French	55,325	1.2%	54,745	1.4%
Korean	52,160	1.2%	46,500	1.2%
Spanish	47,010	1.0%	34,075	0.9%
Persian	43,470	1.0%	28,150	0.7%
Vietnamese	27,150	0.6%	24,560	0.7%
Hindi	26,720	0.6%	23,240	0.6%
Russian	25,955	0.6%	19,320	0.5%
Italian	22,680	0.5%	27,020	0.7%
Japanese	21,350	0.5%	20,040	0.5%
Dutch	21,020	0.5%	26,355	0.7%
Arabic	17,480	0.4%	8,440	0.2%
Portuguese	17,450	0.4%	14,385	0.4%
Polish	16,910	0.4%	17,565	0.4%
Chinese, n.o.s.	10,050	0.2%	132,755	3.2%
Urdu	9,885	0.2%	7,025	0.2%
Hungarian	9,025	0.2%	10,670	0.3%
Romanian	8,730	0.2%	6,335	0.2%
Ukrainian	8,630	0.2%	12,285	0.3%
Croatian	7,475	0.2%	8,505	0.2%
Serbian	7,045	0.2%	6,180	0.2%
Gujarati	6,895	0.2%	6,565	0.2%
Greek	6,115	0.1%	6,620	0.2%
Czech	5,920	0.1%	6,000	0.1%
Ilocano	5,240	0.1%	3,100	0.1%
Danish	4,665	0.1%	6,720	0.2%
Malay	3,895	0.1%	3,100	0.1%
Finnish	3,760	0.1%	4,770	0.1%
Tamil	3,615	0.1%	3,200	0.1%
Slovak	3,400	0.1%	3,490	0.1%
Turkish	3,145	0.1%	2,255	0.1%
Swedish	2,520	0.1%	2,875	0.1%
Athabaskan languages	2,310	0.1%	3,500	0.1%
Salish languages	2,270	0.1%	3,190	0.1%
Norwegian	2,005	0.1%	3,275	0.1%
Source: Statistics Canada 2006 & 2016 Census[19][20]

See also

BC

AB

SK

MB

ON

QC

NB

PE

NS

NL

YT

NT

NU

Demographics of Canada's provinces and territories

• Demographics of Canada
• Population of Canada by province and territory
• Demographics of Vancouver
• Demographics of Abbotsford, British Columbia

References

1. BC's birth rate, teen births lowest in Pacific Northwest — Sightline Institute
2. "25_imr.FH10" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-02-27. Retrieved 2006-06-30.
3. http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/DATA/pop/vital/exp0_bc.csv
4. Northwest's birth rate, teen births hit record lows — Sightline Institute
5. Statistics Canada - Population
6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-29. Retrieved 2006-06-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
7. "Census Profile, 2016 Census British Columbia [Province]". Retrieved 25 November 2018.
8. "2006 Canadian Census". Statistics Canada. Retrieved September 21, 2014.
9. "Census Profile, 2016 Census British Columbia [Province]". Retrieved 25 November 2018.
10. "Population by visible minority group, place of residence and projection scenario, Canada, 2011 and 2036". Retrieved 25 November 2018.
11. "Projections of the Aboriginal Population and Households in Canada, 2011 to 2036" (PDF). Retrieved 25 November 2018.
12. , Community Profiles from the 2006 Census, Statistics Canada - Province/Territory
13. , Aboriginal Population Profile from the 2006 Census, Statistics Canada - Province/Territory
14. "Immigrant population by place of birth, period of immigration, 2016 counts, both sexes, age (total), British Columbia, 2016 Census – 25% Sample data".
15. "Interprovincial Migration in Canada: Quebeckers Vote with Their Feet" (PDF). www.fraserinstitute.org. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
16. Statistics Canada, table 051-0012: Interprovincial migrants, by age group and sex, Canada, provinces and territories, annual.
17. "NHS Profile, British Columbia, 2011". Statistics Canada. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
18. "NHS Profile, British Columbia, 2011". Statistics Canada. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
19. "Detailed Mother Tongue (148), Single and Multiple Language Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census – 20% Sample Data". Statistics Canada. 2007.
20. "Census Profile, 2016 Census British Columbia [Province]". Statistics Canada. 2019.