Greater Victoria, British Columbia

Greater Victoria (also known as the Greater Victoria Region) is located in British Columbia, Canada, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. It is not a political entity but rather a group of thirteen different municipalities of the Capital Regional District (CRD). The only portions of the CRD not included in the designation are the Gulf Islands and those portions of the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area west of Sooke.

Many places, buildings, and institutions associated with Victoria (the University of Victoria, Victoria International Airport, or the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal, for example), actually exist outside the City of Victoria. The confusion is enhanced by the fact that Victoria is the locality indicated in the mailing addresses of places in several CRD municipalities and localities outside Victoria.

Municipalities in Greater Victoria

These are broken down into:

The "core" munipalities: The City of Victoria and the District Municipalities of Saanich, Esquimalt, and Oak Bay, which are immediately adjacent to it;
The Western Communities: The Cities of Colwood and Langford, The Town of View Royal, and the District Municipalities of Highlands, Metchosin, and Sooke, which lie generally west of Esquimalt Harbour and Portage Inlet; and
The Saanich Peninsula: The District Municipalities of Central Saanich, North Saanich, and the Town of Sidney, which lie to the north of Victoria.

This breakdown is roughly mirrored by the three school districts in Greater Victoria.

School District #61 - Greater Victoria
School District #62 - Sooke
School District #63 - Saanich

Greater Victoria is the southernmost urban area in western Canada, as it is located below the 49th parallel.

Demographics

Population

The Greater Victoria region has a combined population of almost 312,000, according to the 2001 Canadian census ^*. The region comprises two of the fifteen most populous municipalities in British Columbia (Saanich, at number seven, and Victoria at number thirteen). The population of the municipalities and unincorporated districts are as follows:

Saanich 103,654
Victoria 74,125
Langford 18,840
Oak Bay 17,798
Esquimalt 16,127
Central Saanich 15,348
Colwood 13,745
Sidney 10,949
North Saanich 10,436
Sooke 8,735
View Royal 7,271
Metchosin 4,857
First Nations Reserves 4,667
Juan de Fuca Electoral Area of the CRD 3,962
Highlands 1,674

Largest Ethnic groups

In comparison to the Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), the region does not enjoy a great deal of ethnic diversity. Most of the population remains of European descent. A substantial community of those of Chinese descent has existed in Greater Victoria since the latter nineteenth century, the first significant influx coming with the building of the transcontinental railway in the 1880s. There is also a substantial First Nations (indigenous) population whose ancestors have lived in the area for thousands of years. Numerous First Nations reserves, forming distinct communities, exist in the region — primarily on the Saanich Peninsula, in Esquimalt, and in the Western Communities — although the majority of the First Nations population live off-reserve.

The largest ethnic groups in Greater Victoria, according to the 2001 census, are:

English - 131,670
Canadian - 90,780 (those mostly of British/French origin whose ancestors have lived in Canada for many generations)
Scottish - 79,275
Irish - 56,655
German - 34,345
French - 29,440
Dutch - 13,805
Ukrainian - 12,770
Chinese - 11,720
Aboriginal - 10,230

Neighbourhoods of Greater Victoria

Victoria
- Chinatown
- Cook Street Village
- East Burnside-Gorge
- Fairfield
- Fernwood
- Harris Green
- Hillside
- Humboldt Valley
- James Bay
- Jubilee
- North Park
- Rockland
- Victoria West

Saanich
- Beaver Lake
- Broadmead
- Cadboro Bay
- Cedar Hill
- Cordova Bay
- Elk Lake
- Glanford
- Gordon Head
- The Gorge
- Interurban
- Lake Hill
- Marigold
- Mayfair
- Mt. Douglas
- Mt. Tolmie
- Prospect Lake
- Royal Oak
- Strawberry Vale
- Ten Mile Point
- Tillicum
- West Burnside
- West Saanich