"One in three people in Greater Vancouver is Asian"

Wow...This will probably blow the mind of people who have never been to Vancouver....

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VANCOUVER - Statistics Canada's latest data detailing this country's ethnic make-up shows that one in three people in Greater Vancouver is Asian.

'Vancouver has the highest proportion of people born outside the country' ? Jennifer Chard
Jennifer Chard, a senior analyst for the agency, also says one in four Vancouverites was born outside Canada.

"In fact, Vancouver has the highest proportion of people born outside the country than either Los Angeles or New York, which I think would surprise many people living in Vancouver."

David Baxter, the executive director of the Urban Futures Institute, says the wave of entrepreneurs from Hong Kong and Taiwan has died down, and the new numbers reflect a different trend.

"A large number of people in China have skills, " he says . "They're coming to Canada as workers rather than as entrepreneurs."

Baxter says another immigration trend that is changing B.C's ethnic makeup is the fact more Koreans are moving to this province.

"Korea is number five in terms of source of immigrants. That's only over the last three years, so it doesn't show up much, but it's a really significant shift when you start taking a look at composition stream of the very recent immigrants, " says Baxter.


The figures from the 2001 Census also show the Fraser Valley community of Abbotsford now has the highest proportion of South Asians of any city in the country.

Statistics Canada also says the proportion of foreign-born individuals across the country is at its highest level in 70 years.

The report also says that people who identified themselves as Chinese surpassed the one-million mark for the first time in this country.

The top three countries of origin in 2001 were the United Kingdom with 141,370 immigrants, China with 107,450 immigrants and India with 92,430 immigrants.