Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The diversity of foreign born immigrants is MUCH higher than Vancouver on average.
Both metros have large Chinese and Indian populations. The Bay has more Mainland Chinese and South Indian immigrants while Vancouver has more Hong Kongers and Punjabi immigrants. San Francisco, however, has a MUCH more extensive population of other Asian immigrant groups such as Vietnamese, Cambodians, Filipinos, Thais, Burmese, Laotians, Pakistanis, Tibetans, etc. compared to Vancouver.
Also, the Bay has FAR more immigrants from Latin America and Africa compared to Vancouver as well as immigrants from many different European nations.
Silicon Valley alone has more international impact than Vancouver. The industry draws people from around the world for high paying tech jobs whereas Vancouver is mainly known for international real estate from a select few countries such as China, the UK, and Iran.
With that being said, due to Canada's relaxed immigration laws, there are more immigrants from Hong Kong, the UK, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Guyana in the Lower Mainland compared to the Bay Area.
Vancouver CMA is 40% foreign born
San Francisco CSA is 30% foreign born
Thing is, as others have alluded to, Vancouver is multicultural but in a pretty specific way. There are a lot of Chinese, but a disproportionate number are Cantonese. There are a lot of Indians, but the vast majority are Punjabi. Even the Bay Area's Chinese and Indian populations have more diversity linguistically, never mind the other ethnicities.
Can someone tell me why Abbotsford isn't counted as part of the Vancouver area? Seems kind of weird that it isn't.
Non North American Carriers with nonstop service to these cities:
YVR-Vancouver
Air China: Beijing-Capital
Air France: Paris-Charles deGaulle
Air New Zealand: Auckland
All Nippon Airways: Tokyo-Haneda
Beijing Capital Airlines: Hangzhou, Qingdao
British Airlines: London-Heathrow
Cathay Pacific: Hong Kong
China Airlines: Taipei-Taoyuan
China Eastern Airlines: Kunming, Nanjing, Shanghai-Pudong
China Southern Airlines: Guangzhou
Condor: Frankfurt
Edelweiss Air: Zurich
EVA Air: Taipei-Taoyuan
Hainan Airlines: Shenzhen
Hong Kong Airlines: Hong Kong
Icelandair: Reyjavik-Keflavik
Japan Airlines: Tokyo-Narita
KLM: Amsterdam
Korean Air: Seoul-Incheon
Lufthansa: Frankfurt, Munich
Philippine Airlines: Manila
Qantas: Sydney
Sichuan Airlines: Chengdu, Shenyang, Zhengzhou
XiamenAir: Xiamen
SFO-San Francisco
Aer Lingus: Dublin
Air China: Beijing-Capital
Air France: Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Air India: Delhi
Air Italy: Milan-Malpensa
Air New Zealand: Auckland
All Nippon Airways: Tokyo-Narita
Asiana: Seoul-Incheon
British Airways: London-Heathrow
Cathay Pacific: Hong Kong
China Airlines: Taipei-Taoyuan
China Eastern Airlines: Qingdao, Shanghai-Pudong
China Southern Airlines: Guangzhou, Wuhan
El Al: Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion
Emirates: Dubai-International
EVA Air: Taipei-Taoyuan
Fiji Airways: Nadi
Finnair: Helsinki
French Bee: Papeete-Tahiti, Paris-Orly
Hong Kong Airlines: Hong Kong
Iberia: Madrid
Icelandair: Reykjavik-Keflavik
Japan Airlines: Tokyo-Haneda
KLM: Amsterdam
Korean Air: Seoul-Incheon
Level: Barcelona
Lufthansa: Frankfurt, Munich
Norwegian Air: London-Gatwick
Philippine Airlines: Manila
Qantas: Melbourne, Sydney
Scandinavian Airlines: Copenhagen
Singapore Airlines: Hong Kong, Singapore
Swiss Air: Zurich
TAP Air Portugal: Lisbon
Thomas Cook Airlines: Manchester(UK)
Turkish Airlines: Istanbul-Ataturk
Virgin Atlantic: London-Heathrow
XL Airways France: Paris-Charles de Gaulle
SJC: San Jose
All Nippon Airways: Tokyo-Narita
British Airways: London-Heathrow
Hainan Airlines: Beijing-Capital
Vancouver has a stronger international presence (as someone has said the metro is 40% foreign born vs 30% for the Bay Area), but the reason I voted for the Bay Area is 1) it has a more diverse range of foreign born residents and 2) it’s just so much bigger overall so the sheer volume of international residents is much higher.
Vancouver has a ton of immigrants from China, India, and the UK (as well as quite a few from other Western European countries). SF’s foreign population is much more well-rounded, with virtually every part of the world represented.
Vancouver CMA is 40% foreign born
San Francisco CSA is 30% foreign born
Thing is, as others have alluded to, Vancouver is multicultural but in a pretty specific way. There are a lot of Chinese, but a disproportionate number are Cantonese. There are a lot of Indians, but the vast majority are Punjabi. Even the Bay Area's Chinese and Indian populations have more diversity linguistically, never mind the other ethnicities.
Can someone tell me why Abbotsford isn't counted as part of the Vancouver area? Seems kind of weird that it isn't.
You’d know better than me - is Abbotsford a bedroom community of Van where people commute into the city or does the area have enough of its own industry that commuting 50 km isn’t necessary? I know it’s traditionally a logging center, but it definitely strikes me as odd that a place literally next to Van isn’t part of it
I know the term “Lower Mainland” includes Abbotsford as well. Maybe unlike Surrey or Langley, Abbotsford previously existed, so they were a town before Vancouver exploded.
Last edited by Bubb Rubb; 03-04-2019 at 02:11 PM..
You’d know better than me - is Abbotsford a bedroom community of Van where people commute into the city or does the area have enough of its own industry that commuting 50 km isn’t necessary? I know it’s traditionally a logging center, but it definitely strikes me as odd that a place literally next to Van isn’t part of it
I know the term “Lower Mainland” includes Abbotsford as well. Maybe unlike Surrey or Langley, Abbotsford previously existed, so they were a town before Vancouver exploded.
Historically no. It really wasn't considered a commutable distance to downtown Vancouver. I suppose someone could commute if they worked in one of Vancouver's other suburbs, and had shifts that weren't during rush hours. During rush hour it would be at minimum 2 hours to get downtown, probably more. Transit might be better since you could hop over to Mission and take the commuter train, The West Coast Express into downtown. The issue is that if you are commuting by car to downtown Vancouver, you are at the beginning of the commute. Meaning, as you pass through Langley, Surrey, Coquitlam, and Burnaby you are picking up more and more people commuting in their cars. They widened the freeway a few years ago, but it filled up with 2 years. Once you hit Vancouver's border, you have no freeway ( except to the north shore ) so that added to the time.
To give you an example from my personal experience, driving from downtown Vancouver to Maple Ridge should take 45 minutes. During rush hour it can easily be double that.
Abbotsford has a population of over 141, 000, which if you look at these census records, shows how fast it has grown.
As for future transit, as the article I linked mentioned, they have different transit authorities. I'm not sure how that is affecting " linking up " with the rest of the GVRD, but Langley will get Skytrain, before Abbotsford does. So it may be years before it can become truly a commutable distance, at least one that most would do.
I really only drive through Abbotsford on my way eastward to other parts of BC. It's always been considered more of a Fraser Valley location, than a Vancouver one. Here's their history.
Historically no. It really wasn't considered a commutable distance to downtown Vancouver. I suppose someone could commute if they worked in one of Vancouver's other suburbs, and had shifts that weren't during rush hours. During rush hour it would be at minimum 2 hours to get downtown, probably more. Transit might be better since you could hop over to Mission and take the commuter train, The West Coast Express into downtown. The issue is that if you are commuting by car to downtown Vancouver, you are at the beginning of the commute. Meaning, as you pass through Langley, Surrey, Coquitlam, and Burnaby you are picking up more and more people commuting in their cars. They widened the freeway a few years ago, but it filled up with 2 years. Once you hit Vancouver's border, you have no freeway ( except to the north shore ) so that added to the time.
To give you an example from my personal experience, driving from downtown Vancouver to Maple Ridge should take 45 minutes. During rush hour it can easily be double that.
Abbotsford has a population of over 141, 000, which if you look at these census records, shows how fast it has grown.
As for future transit, as the article I linked mentioned, they have different transit authorities. I'm not sure how that is affecting " linking up " with the rest of the GVRD, but Langley will get Skytrain, before Abbotsford does. So it may be years before it can become truly a commutable distance, at least one that most would do.
I really only drive through Abbotsford on my way eastward to other parts of BC. It's always been considered more of a Fraser Valley location, than a Vancouver one. Here's their history.
Wow thank you for this thought out post. It's crazy how Abbotsford literally had less than 10,000 people in 1976 to having 141,000 now. I can't help but think most people who live there work somewhere in GVRD because it looks like a majorly suburban area, but given all the constraints in infrastructure, it would be hard to commute to Downtown Vancouver directly. The growth seems to be because people have been moving out of the immediate Vancouver area, which seems to be a pattern repeating itself all over the US West Coast. The best thing I feel like I can compare Abbotsford to would be a place like Hamilton in Ontario but even that seems imperfect because Hamilton was an actual major city before Toronto blew up. Abbotsford was a small little town.
Maybe for the purposes of this thread, Abbotsford is like Stockton in SF Bay maybe? Sort of there and existed before but high prices forcing people out?
Does Surrey or Langley have any job centers to speak of? That's how a commute like that could seem feasible. Otherwise, that seems like an insane commute for most people.
My commute here in DC is terrible enough, but I at least have a good rail system to go off of.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
