Port Coquitlam ( ) is a city in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada. It is one of 21 municipalities comprising

Metro Vancouver The Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD), or simply Metro Vancouver, is a Canadian political subdivision and Corporation, corporate entity representing the metropolitan area of Greater Vancouver, designated by provincial legislation as o ...

. Located east of

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 cit ...

, it is on the north bank of the confluence of the

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

and the

Pitt River The Pitt River in British Columbia, Canada is a large tributary of the Fraser River, entering it a few miles upstream from New Westminster and about 25 km ESE of Downtown Vancouver. The river, which begins in the Garibaldi Ranges of the Coa ...

Coquitlam Coquitlam ( ) is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly suburban, Coquitlam is the List of cities in British Columbia, sixth-largest city in the province, with an estimated population of 174,248 in 2024, and one of th ...

borders it to the north and west.

Pitt Meadows Pitt Meadows is a city within Metro Vancouver in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Incorporated in 1914, it currently has a land area of with an estimate population of 19,498 as of 2024. The city received its name from the Pitt River and ...

lies across the Pitt River from it. Port Coquitlam is bisected by

Lougheed Highway Lougheed is an Irish variant of a surname of Scottish origins, meaning ''head of the lake''. Lougheed or Loughead may refer to: Places * Lougheed, Alberta, a Canadian village * Lougheed Island, Nunavut, Canada * Lougheed Highway, part of British ...

and the

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, Trade name, doing business as CPKC (known as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited until 2023), is a Canadian railway holding company. Through its primary operating railroad subsidiaries, Canadian Pacific Railw ...

railway. Port Coquitlam is often referred to as "PoCo". It is Canada's 93rd-largest municipality by population.

History

The area was long inhabited by

indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

, most recently by the

Coast Salish people The Coast Salish peoples are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one o ...

, including the ''Kwikwetl'em''. The first European settlers began farming beside the

in 1859. A major impetus to the creation of a municipality was when the Canadian Pacific Railway moved its freight terminus from Vancouver to "Westminster Junction", building a spur line to the Fraser River port of New Westminster in 1911. Port Coquitlam was first incorporated as a municipality on March 7, 1913. Port Coquitlam was originally developed mostly as farmland. Given the expansion and increasing density of Vancouver, it has now been developed for suburban housing, especially in the northern and southwestern areas of the city. The economy is diversified, with a variety of industrial and

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

developments, including metal fabrication, high technology industries, and transportation.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Port Coquitlam had a population of 61,498 living in 22,884 of its 23,671 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 58,612. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. During the second half of the 1990s, the population grew at a rate of 9.8%, spurred by numerous immigrants. By 2001 they comprised 25% of the population. English was the first language for 76% of the inhabitants. In 2009, Port Coquitlam was rated 85th for its murder rate (for Canadian cities with a population over 50K).Macleans

14 October 2010

Ethnicity

*Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.

Languages

The 2021 census found that English was spoken as mother tongue by 62.4% of the population.

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

s made up the next largest first language category. Chinese languages were the mother tongues of 8.2% of residents, including 4.5%

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

and 3.4%

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

. Other common first languages were

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

(3.0%),

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

(2.6%), and

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...

(2.4%). As a single response,

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

was the first language of 0.9% of the population. 3.5% of residents listed both English and a non-official language as mother tongues, while 0.4% listed both English and French.

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Port Coquitlam include: *

Irreligion Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ...

(29,825 persons or 49.4%) *

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

(23,980 persons or 39.7%) *

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

(2,590 persons or 4.3%) *

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

(1,335 persons or 2.2%) *

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

(855 persons or 1.4%) *

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

(755 persons or 1.3%) *

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

(300 persons or 0.5%) * Indigenous Spirituality (45 persons or 0.1%)

Transportation

Being primarily suburban, Port Coquitlam relies heavily on its vehicular roads to move people and goods. For example, two of its major arterial roads, Shaughnessy Street and

bisect Port Coquitlam north to south and east to west, respectively. TransLink provides a number of bus routes throughout the city. The most used bus routes in this section of the Metro Vancouver Regional District are the 159, which connects southern Port Coquitlam to SkyTrain at Braid station. Other bus routes in the city include the 160, which links Port Coquitlam with Vancouver via

Coquitlam Central Station Coquitlam Central station is an Intermodal passenger transport, intermodal rapid transit station in Metro Vancouver served by both the Millennium Line—part of the SkyTrain (Vancouver), SkyTrain system—and the region's West Coast Express commut ...

and Moody Centre station, and the 173/174, which runs a loop through the northern half of the city, linking it with regional buses at Coquitlam Central and Port Coquitlam station. Two major stops in the city include Port Coquitlam Centre and Port Coquitlam Station. The remainder of Port Coquitlam is served by a network of Community Shuttles. Port Coquitlam is the only one of the Tri-Cities to not have SkyTrain. However, this may change in the future with a

Millennium Line The Millennium Line is the second line of the SkyTrain rapid transit system in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. The line is owned and operated by BC Rapid Transit Company, a subsidiary of TransLink, and links the cities ...

extension into the downtown area. When the

Evergreen Extension The Evergreen Extension (previously known as the Evergreen Line) is a extension of the Millennium Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. The extension runs from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby to Lafarge Lake–Douglas in ...

was built, the first few metres of track and a track switch to allow for an eventual eastward extension to Port Coquitlam were built at Coquitlam Central station. This would create two branches where trains would alternate between going north to Lafarge Lake–Douglas or east to downtown Port Coquitlam. A feasibility study was conducted, started during early 2020 and running for about six months. Both Mayor Brad West, the Port Coquitlam City Council, and the Coquitlam City Council have voiced support for the extension. However, as of 2022, no funding had been secured nor a formal plan created. The Lougheed Highway passes through Port Coquitlam, running from Coquitlam in the west to the

Pitt River Bridge The Pitt River Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that spans the Pitt River between Port Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows in British Columbia, Canada. The bridge is part of Highway 7, carrying Lougheed Highway across the river. The current bridge opened ...

in the east. Although this highway has made much of Port Coquitlam a very congested area, it is one of the few major arterial highways in the area. The Mary Hill Bypass, officially known as Highway 7B, runs adjacent to the Fraser River from the Pitt River Bridge on the east to the

Port Mann Bridge The Port Mann Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that crosses the Fraser River in the Greater Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. It carries 10 lanes of British Columbia Highway 1, Highway 1 (itself part of the Trans-Canada Highway) and ...

on the west. The

has a major rail yard in the central sector of the city. In October 2009, the new Pitt River Bridge, a new seven-lane

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

, opened to the public replacing the existing crossing. The previous crossing was made up of 2 swing bridges, which were removed upon completion of the new bridge. The Pitt River Bridge crosses the

, connecting Port Coquitlam to neighbouring Pitt Meadows. In March 2010, the

Coast Meridian Overpass The Coast Meridian Overpass is a four-lane cable stayed bridge in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, crossing the Canadian Pacific railyard. It is 25 metres wide and 580 m long, with a bike lane on the northbound side and a separated pedestrian walk ...

, a new four-lane cable-stayed bridge, opened to give a new option for traveling north to south over the Canadian Pacific Railway Oxford Street rail yard. A hiking and biking trail, known as the Traboulay PoCo Trail, completely surrounds the city. In August 2018, U-bicycle launched a dockless

bicycle sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bo ...

in the city.

Education

Public schools

Public schools in Port Coquitlam are part of

School District 43 Coquitlam School District No. 43 (Coquitlam) or SD43 is one of the sixty school districts in British Columbia. The district is the third-largest in British Columbia with 45 elementary schools, 14 middle schools, and 11 secondary schools. School District ...

and consists of several private schools as well. Secondary schools: * Riverside Secondary * Terry Fox Secondary Middle schools: * Citadel Middle * Kwayhquitlum Middle * Maple Creek Middle (former Hastings Junior Secondary) * Minnekhada Middle (former George Pearkes Junior Secondary) * Pitt River Middle (former Mary Hill Junior Secondary) Elementary schools: * Birchland Elementary * Blakeburn Elementary * Castle Park Elementary * Cedar Drive Elementary * Central Elementary * Coquitlam River Elementary * Glen Elementary (

French Immersion French immersion is a form of bilingual education in which students who do not speak French as a first language will receive instruction in French. In most French- immersion schools, students will learn to speak French and learn most subjects ...

) * Irvine Elementary (French Immersion) * James Park Elementary * Hazel Trembath Elementary * Kilmer Elementary (French Immersion) * Lincoln Elementary (Closed in 2007). * Mary Hill Elementary (French Immersion) * Westwood Elementary The '' Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique'' operates one Francophone primary and secondary school: ''école des Pionniers-de-Maillardville''.Carte des écoles
." '' Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique''. Retrieved on 22 January 2015.

Private schools

* Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary School * Our Lady of the Assumption Elementary * British Columbia Christian Academy (formerly Lincoln Elementary) * Hope Lutheran Christian School * Ecole des Pionniers de Maillardville (French) * Sprott Shaw College (post secondary)

Notable residents

* Rene Tosoni, Former Major League Baseball Player

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

Sukh Chungh Sukhjivan Singh Chungh (born March 4, 1992) is a Canadian professional football offensive lineman. He played CIS football at University of Calgary. Early life Chungh's parents immigrated to Canada from India. He began playing football in the nint ...

, Canadian football player *

Zach Hamill Zachary Robert Hamill (born September 23, 1988) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. Hamill was drafted in the first round, eighth overall by the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Boston Bruins in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Prior to ...

, professional hockey player, drafted 8th overall in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft by the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...

* Betty Fox, cancer research activist, mother of Terry Fox *

Terry Fox Terrance Stanley Fox (July 28, 1958June 28, 1981) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, having had one leg amputated due to cancer, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for can ...

, athlete and cancer treatment activist *

Robert Pickton Robert William Pickton (October 24, 1949 – May 31, 2024), also known as the Pig Farmer Killer or the Butcher, was a Canadian serial killer and pig farmer. After dropping out of school, he left a butcher's apprenticeship to begin working full- ...

, convicted serial killer, alleged to be Canada's most prolific *

Ian Tracey Ian Tracey (born June 26, 1964) is a Canadian actor.Ian Tracey's bio
at www.northernstars.ca Ove ...

, Leo and Gemini Award-winning actor *

Amanda Todd Amanda Michelle Todd (November 27, 1996 – October 10, 2012) was a 15-year-old Canadian student and victim of cyberbullying who committed suicide in her home in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. A month before her death, Todd posted a video ...

, bullying victim *

Tyler Shaw Tyler Shaw (born April 8, 1993) is a Canadian singer and actor. After winning the "MuchMusic Coca-Cola Covers Contest 2012" organized by the Canadian music cable channel Much (TV channel), MuchMusic, he released his debut single, "Kiss Goodnig ...

, singer and songwriter * Eric Reprid, Asian-Canadian rapper-songwriter *

Sophia Reid-Gantzert Sophia Reid-Gantzert (born January 18, 2010) is a Canadian actress and dancer. She began dancing at age two and won a competition in Austria at age six. In 2017, she made her acting debut in the television film ''The Sweetest Christmas''. Reid-G ...

, actress and dancer

Notes

References

;Specific *Francis, Daniel, ed. ''Encyclopedia of British Columbia'', Harbour Publishing Ltd, 2000 ;General

External links

* {{authority control 1913 establishments in British Columbia Cities in British Columbia Populated places established in 1913 Populated places in Greater Vancouver