Back then in 1886, there were only a little over 1,000 residents in Vancouver. The city was then nearly destroyed after the Great Vancouver Fire in 1886. The city rebuilt itself and in 1911, there were over 100,000 people living there.There are 603,502 residents living in Vancouver according to the 2011 population census.
Vancouver has many migration activities occurring daily. The total population difference from 2006 and 2011 was almost 20,000. As you can see, according to the 2011 Vancouver census, there are many Chinese immigrants migrating to Vancouver. In fact, 27.7% of the population were Chinese. All in all, Vancouver has many immigrants coming in and out of Vancouver. Why? Well, my best guess is because of the weather. The weather is one of the warmest among the Canadian cities, and where ever there is warm weather, there are people. (Learn more about it in my climate graph section!) There are advantages and disadvantages to this. A couple advantages are that with more people, they can make up for a low birth rate. More immigrants mean more skilled people out into the work force, which, of course, is always good. Advantages come with a price. A disadvantage is that the city can become over populated and can result in an unemployment rate increase. There are too many people competing for jobs and not enough jobs for people. That could be a problem. The unemployment rate will increase and there will not be enough money to support everyone.