The City of North Vancouver is a city on the north shore of

Burrard Inlet french: Baie Burrard , image = Burrard Inlet 201807.jpg , image_size = 250px , alt = , caption = Aerial view of Burrard Inlet , image_bathymetry = Burrard-Inlet-map-en.svg , alt_bathymetry ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is the smallest in area and the most urbanized of the North Shore municipalities. Although it has significant industry of its ownincluding

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...

chemical production A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

, and

film production Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

the city is considered to be a suburb of Vancouver. The city is served by the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

British Columbia Ambulance Service The British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS) is an ambulance service that provides emergency medical response for the province of British Columbia, Canada. BCAS is one of the largest provider of emergency medical services in North America. The f ...

, and the North Vancouver City Fire Department.

History

In the 1880s,

Arthur Heywood-Lonsdale Arthur Pemberton Heywood-Lonsdale (9 January 1835 – 24 February 1897) was an English rower and landowner who was High Sheriff of two counties and a substantial investor in North Vancouver. Lonsdale was the son of Rev. Henry Gylby Lonsdale and ...

and a relation James Pemberton Fell, made substantial investments through their company, Lonsdale Estates, and in 1882 he financed the Moodyville investments. Several locations in the North Vancouver area are named after Lonsdale and his family. Not long after the District was formed, an early land developer and second reeve of the new council, James Cooper Keith, personally underwrote a loan to commence construction of a road which undulated from West Vancouver to Deep Cove amid the slashed sidehills, swamps, and burnt stumps. The road, sometimes under different names and not always contiguous, is still one of the most important east-west thoroughfare carrying traffic across the North Shore. Development was slow at the outset. The population of the District in the 1901 census was only 365 people. Keith joined Edwin Mahon and together they controlled North Vancouver Land & Improvement Company. Soon the pace of development around the foot of Lonsdale began to pick up. The first school was opened in 1902. The District was able to build a municipal hall in 1903 and actually have meetings in North Vancouver (instead of in Vancouver where most of the landowners lived). The first bank and first newspaper arrived in 1905. In 1906 the BC Electric Railway Company opened up a street car line that extended from the ferry wharf up Lonsdale to 12th Street. By 1911 the streetcar system extended west to the Capilano River and east to Lynn Valley. The owners of businesses who operated on Lonsdale, as part of an initiative led by Keith and Mahon, brought a petition to District Council in 1905 calling for a new, compact city to be carved out of the unwieldy district. During the ensuing two years there was much and sometimes heated debate. Some thought the new City should have a new name such as Northport, Hillmont or Parkhill. Burrard became the favourite of the new names but majority view was that North Vancouver remain in order to remain associated with the rising credibility of Vancouver in financial markets and as a place to attract immigrants. Some thought the boundary of the new City should reflect geography and extend from Lynn Creek or Seymour River west to the Capilano River and extend three miles up the mountainside. That the boundary of the City which came into existence in 1907 just happened to match that of the lands owned by the North Vancouver Land & Improvement Company and Lonsdale Estate was no accident. Since the motivation for creating the City was to reserve local tax revenue for the work of putting in services for the property owned by the major developers, there was little reason to take on any of the burden beyond the extent of their holdings. Residents in west part of the District of North Vancouver now had less reason to be connected with what remained and they petitioned to create the District of West Vancouver (the west part of the North Shore, not the west side of Vancouver) in 1912. The eastern boundary of that new municipality is for the most part the Capilano River and a community that is easily distinguished from the two North Vancouvers has since developed. The City of North Vancouver continued to grow around the foot of Lonsdale Avenue. Serviced by the North Vancouver Ferries, it proved a popular area. Commuters used the ferries to work in Vancouver. Street cars and early land speculation, spurred interest in the area. Streets, city blocks and houses were slowly built around lower Lonsdale. Wallace Shipyards, and the

Pacific Great Eastern Railway The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

provided an industrial base, although, the late arrival of the Second Narrows railway bridge in 1925 controlled development. The Depression again bankrupted the city, while the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

turned North Vancouver into the

Clydeside Greater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area (or conurbation). It does not relate to municipal government ...

of Canada with a large shipbuilding program. Housing the shipyard workers provided a new building boom, which continued on through the post-war years. By that time, North Vancouver became a popular housing area.

Geography

The City of North Vancouver is separated from

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

by the

, and it is surrounded on three sides by the District of North Vancouver. The city has much in common with the District Municipality of North Vancouver and together with

West Vancouver West Vancouver is a district municipality in the province of British Columbia, Canada. A member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District, West Vancouver is to the northwest of the city of Vancouver on the northern side of English Ba ...

are commonly referred to as the North Shore. The City of North Vancouver is relatively densely populated with a number of residential high-rise buildings in the

Central Lonsdale Central Lonsdale is a precinct in the city of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward int ...

and

Lower Lonsdale Lower Lonsdale is a historic waterfront neighbourhood in the city of North Vancouver. Lower Lonsdale runs up Lonsdale Avenue from Lonsdale Quay to Keith Road. The area is characterized by its progressive feel of trendy businesses, a high end sex ...

areas. The North Shore mountains have many drainages: Capilano River, MacKay, Mosquito, and Lynn Creeks, and Seymour River.

Climate

North Vancouver has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Cfb'') with cool, rainy winters and dry, warm summers.

Politics

Sites of interest

The area around lower Lonsdale Avenue features several open community spaces, including Waterfront Park, Lonsdale Quay, Ship Builders Square and the Burrard Dry Dock Pier. Other sites of interest in the city include: * Centennial Theatre, 2300 Lonsdale Avenue *

First Church of Christ, Scientist The First Church of Christ, Scientist is the administrative headquarters and mother church of the Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as the Christian Science church. Christian Science was founded in the 19th century in Lynn, Massachusetts ...

, a local heritage site * North Vancouver Museum & Archives, 209 West 4th Street * The Polygon Gallery * Presentation House Theatre, 333 Chesterfield Avenue * St. Edmund's Church, 535 Mahon Avenue, a local heritage site * Trans Canada Trail Pavilion, Waterfront Park * The Shipyards, near

Lonsdale Quay Lonsdale Quay is a SeaBus ferry terminal and major transit exchange that serves Metro Vancouver's North Shore municipalities. The quay is located in the City of North Vancouver. The BCIT Marine Campus and Lonsdale Quay Market are located wit ...

, which includes Ship Builders Square and the Burrard Dry Dock Pier, on the site of the old Wallace Shipyard *Lonsdale Quay Market, easily accessible from the Seabus. The Quay has a view of Vancouver's skyline and is locally owned and operated.

Transportation

The City of North Vancouver is connected to

by two highway bridges (the

Lions Gate Bridge The Lions Gate Bridge, opened in 1938 and officially known as the First Narrows Bridge, is a suspension bridge that crosses the first narrows of Burrard Inlet and connects the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, to the North Shore municipali ...

and the

Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, also called the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and Second Narrows Bridge, is the second bridge constructed at the Second (east) Narrows of Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Origi ...

) and by a passenger ferry, the

SeaBus The SeaBus is a passenger-only ferry service in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It crosses Burrard Inlet to connect the cities of Vancouver ( Waterfront station) and North Vancouver (Lonsdale Quay). Owned by TransLink and operated by ...

. That system and the bus system in North Vancouver is operated by

Coast Mountain Bus Company Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) is the contract operator for bus transit services in Metro Vancouver and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, known locally as TransLink, the entity respons ...

, an operating company of

TransLink Translink (or TransLink) may refer to: * TransLink (British Columbia), the public transport operator in Vancouver, Canada * Translink (Northern Ireland) Translink is the brand name of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), a ...

. The hub of the bus system is

, the location of the SeaBus terminal. Currently, there is no

rail transit Urban rail transit is an all-encompassing term for various types of local rail systems providing passenger service within and around urban or suburban areas. The set of urban rail systems can be roughly subdivided into the following categories, ...

service on the North Shore. The main street in the city is Lonsdale Avenue, which begins at Lonsdale Quay and goes north to 29th Street, where it continues in the District of North Vancouver, ending at Rockland Road. Highway 1, the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

(often referred to as the "Upper Levels Highway") passes through the northern portion of the city. It is a

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

for its entire length within the City of North Vancouver. There are three interchanges on Highway 1 within the City of North Vancouver: *Lynn Valley Road (Exit 19) *Lonsdale Avenue (Exit 18) *Westview Drive (Exit 17)

Education

Public schools are managed by the North Vancouver School District, which operates 8 high schools and 30 elementary schools shared by the city and the District of North Vancouver. The ''

Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique The ''Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique'' (also known as Francophone Education Authority or School District No 93) is the French-language school board for all French schools located in British Columbia. Its headquarters are i ...

'' operates one Francophone school in that city: '' école André-Piolat'', which has both primary and secondary levels. There are also several independent private elementary and high schools in the area, including

Bodwell High School Bodwell High School is a private co-educational boarding school offering grades 8 to 12, anuniversity preparation in North Vancouver (city), North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Background Bodwell High School was founded in 1991 in the Cit ...

and Lions Gate Christian Academy. Post-secondary education is available at

Capilano University Capilano University (CapU) is a teaching-focused public university based in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, located on the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, with programming that also serves the Sea-to-Sky Corridor and the Sunshin ...

in the district, as well as at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

and the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

in neighbouring communities.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, North Vancouver had a population of 58,120 living in 27,293 of its 29,021 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 52,898. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. As of the 2011 census, the median age was 41.2 years old, which is a bit higher than the national median age at 40.6 years old. There are 24,206 private dwellings with an occupancy rate of 94.1%. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, the median value of a dwelling in North Vancouver is $599,985 which is significantly higher than the national average at $280,552. The median household income (after-taxes) in North Vancouver is $52,794, a bit lower than the national average at $54,089.

Ethnicity

North Vancouver has one of the highest West Asian population ratios for any Canadian city at 7.2%. The racial make up of North Vancouver is: * 68.8%

European Canadian European Canadians, or Euro-Canadians, are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to the continent of Europe. They form the largest panethnic group within Canada. In the 2021 Canadian census, 19,062,115 Canadians self-i ...

* 7.9%

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

n;'' 3.8%

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, 2.5%

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, 1.6%

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

'' * 7.3%

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

n; ''7.0%

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

'' * 7.2%

West Asian Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes An ...

* 3.1%

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...

* 2.0% Aboriginal; ''1.4%

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

, 0.6%

Metis Metis or Métis may refer to: Ethnic groups * Métis, recognized Indigenous communities in Canada and America whose distinct culture and language emerged after early intermarriage between First Nations peoples and early European settlers, prima ...

'' * 1.2%

Latin American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...

* 0.8%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

* 0.5%

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

* 1.1%

Multiracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

; ''1.7% including Metis'' * 0.1% Other

Languages

Mother languages as reported by each person:

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in North Vancouver included: *

Irreligion Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and a ...

(29,580 persons or 51.4%) *

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

(20,915 persons or 36.4%) *

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

(4,245 persons or 7.4%) *

Sikhism Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...

(530 persons or 0.9%) *

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

(470 persons or 0.8%) *

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

(385 persons or 0.7%) *

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

(340 persons or 0.6%) * Indigenous Spirituality (70 persons or 0.1%)

References

External links

* * {{authority control Cities in British Columbia Populated places on the British Columbia Coast