With its scenic views, mild climate, and friendly people, Vancouver is known around the world as both a popular tourist attraction and one of the best places to live.
Vancouver is also one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada with 52 percent of the population speaking a first language other than English.
Vancouver has hosted many international conferences and events, including the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics.
Vancouver is located on the mainland of North America, in the south-west corner of British Columbia, the westernmost of Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories. Metro Vancouver is made up of 21 municipalities that occupy 2,930 square kilometres on and around the Fraser River delta. The City of Vancouver is one of them. Roughly speaking, Metro Vancouver is bordered on the north side by the Coast Mountains, to the south by the U.S. border, to the west by Pacific Ocean, and to the east by the far end of the suburbs of Maple Ridge and Langley.
The City of Vancouver is on the far-western portion of a peninsula that is a major extension of the Fraser River’s delta. The delta juts into a part of the Pacific Ocean, separating Vancouver Island from the mainland, called the Strait of Georgia. Several self-governing urban areas called municipalities make up Metro Vancouver. Directly north of the City of Vancouver is West Vancouver and North Vancouver, collectively referred to as “the North Shore”; bordering the east of Vancouver is the suburb of Burnaby, with Richmond to the south of the city.
The southern boundary of the City of Vancouver is the North Arm of the Fraser River, one of the largest rivers entering the Pacific. The Canada-U.S. border is 38 kilometres (24 miles) south of downtown Vancouver.
Across the Strait of Georgia and 96 kilometres (60 miles) to the south-west is British Columbia’s capital city of Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Vancouver is almost exactly halfway between Western Europe and the Asia Pacific countries.