94 Interesting Facts About British Columbia

In this article, discover these up-to-date, interesting, and fun facts about British Columbia.

British Columbia (BC), Canada’s westernmost province, is known for its stunning natural beauty, wild spaces, and the city of Vancouver, one of the world’s most desirable cities (see more interesting facts about Vancouver). 

General British Columbia Facts

• British Columbia, often abbreviated as BC, is a province on the west coast of Canada and the only province or territory that borders the Pacific ocean. It is part of the Western Canada region, along with Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

• BC borders Alaska to the west, the Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north, Alberta to the east, and Washington, Idaho, and Montana states to the south.

• Only about half of BC’s western border is on the Pacific. The other half borders a thin strip of fjords and islands known as the Alaskan Panhandle. America acquired this area is in the 1903 Alaska Territory Dispute.

• British Columbia’s coastline is 25,725 km (15,985 mi), just over 10% of Canada’s coastline.

• At 944,735 km² (364,764 mi²), BC is the 3^rd largest province of Canada, after Quebec and Ontario, or 5^th largest if the territories are included.

• In terms of size, BC is in between Alaska and Texas, the two largest US states, or similar in size to Tanzania or all of Central America and the Caribbean combined.

• British Columbia includes around 40,000 islands. The largest is Vancouver Island, larger than Belgium, and Graham Island (of Haida Gwaii, formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands), which is similar in size to the US state of Delaware.

• BC’s capital city is Victoria, which is located at the southeastern corner of Vancouver Island. It is Canada’s 12^th largest city by population, with just under 400,000 people. (fun fact: dozens of places around the world are named after Victoria, including the famous Victoria Falls in Africa).

• Vancouver, which is on the mainland in the southwestern corner of the province, is by far the largest city in BC and the third largest in Canada. It is the largest city in western Canada and second largest in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle. It is often called one of the best cities in the world to live in.

• 60% of BC’s population lives in the Lower Mainland, which includes Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. It is home to more than half of the province’s 30 most populous municipalities.

• In terms of physical size, Abbotsford is the largest city in BC.

• British Columbia has population of 5.3 million, the 3^rd largest in Canada after Ontario and Quebec.

• BC is home to more than 200 different First Nations. Today, along with the Métis, they make up 6% of BC’s population.

• BC is the most ethnically diverse province in Canada. Around 12% of people in BC are Chinese and 6% are Indian. BC welcomes 40,000 new immigrants per year.

• BC’s official motto is “Splendour without diminishment” (Splendor sine occasu in Latin).

• A popular slogan seen on the province’s license plates is Beautiful British Columbia.

• The BC flag shows the Union Jack with a crown for King Edward and the Royal Family, and a setting sun on the bottom, as the sun sets last in BC, with blue and white lines representing mountains and water.

• People from BC are called British Columbians.

• The name British Columbia comes from the Columbia River in southeastern BC, which was named after a ship called Columbia Rediviva, which was named after Columbia (the name given to parts of the New World), which was named after Christopher Columbus. Queen Victory chose the name British Columbia in 1840 to differentiate it from American Columbia to the south, which later became the Oregon Territory.

• BC’s official animal is the spirit bear (or Kermode bear), which is not an albino bear but a black bear with white fur due to a rare genetic mutation. The Pacific Salmon is also an official symbol of BC.

Interesting Facts About British Columbia

• BC has four national parks: Mount Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho, and Kootenay National Parks. The first two are just west of the Rocky Mountains, while the second two are considered part of the Rocky Mountains.

• Canada has 3 UNESCO World Heritage Sites: SGang Gwaay (in Haida Gwaii), Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks (shared with Alberta), and Kluane / Wrangell-St Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek (shared with Yukon and Alaska). It has 3 more sites on the tentative list.

• Mount Revelstoke National Park contains one of the world’s only inland temperate rainforests (in other words, a cool rainforest that isn’t on the coast).

• Glacier and Yoho National Parks were established on the same day in 1886, becoming the 2^nd and 3^rd national parks in Canada after Banff.

• BC has three national park reserves (protected areas that don’t have quite the same status as national parks): Gwaii Haanas (Haida Gwaii), Pacific Rim, and Gulf Islands National Park Reserves.

• BC also has two “international parks”: Peace Arch Park, which is shared with Washington, USA, and Kluane/Wrangell–St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek.

• There are also over 1000 provincial parks in BC.

• 15.4% of BC is protected land, more than any other province.

• Mt. Robson Provincial Park is home to the tallest peak in the Rocky Mountains (Mt. Robson, 3954 m / 12,972 ft), while Mt. Waddington in the coastal mountains is the tallest mountain totally inside the province (4019 m / 13,186 ft). Mount Fairweather, on the border with Alaska, is even taller (4671 m / 15,325 ft).

• Eagle’s Eye Restaurant at Kicking Horse Ski Resort is the tallest restaurant in Canada, at 2347 m (7700 ft).

• Della Falls on Vancouver Island is Canada’s tallest waterfall, at 440 m (1445 ft).

• A totem pole in Alert Bay, BC is the tallest in the world, at 50 m (163 ft).

• The Great Bear Rainforest covers much of BC’s Pacific coast and is part of the world’s largest temperate rainforest. It covers 64,000 km² (24,7109 mi²), similar in size to Sri Lanka or Lithuania. It is one of the world’s most wild and pristine natural areas.

• 57% of BC is covered in forest, and it has one of the lowest rates of deforestation in the world.

• Canada’s largest tree is the Cheewat Cedar in Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island. It is 18.34 m (60.2 ft) in circumference, 55.5 m (182 ft) tall, and around 2000 years old.

• Less than 5% of BC’s land is arable (suitable for growing crops), but sizable crops of fruits and vegetables are grown in the fertile Fraser and Okanagan valleys.

• 75% of BC is covered in mountains above 1000 m (3300 ft), including 10 mountain ranges from the Rockies in the east to the Vancouver Mountain Ranges in the west.

• BC is the wettest province in Canada, with an average of 1538 mm (around 5 feet) of precipitation per year.

• BC has Canada’s two largest hot springs (in terms of output): Fairmont Hot Springs and Liard River Hot Springs.

• The 75 km (47 mi) West Coast Trail is considered one of the world’s best hikes.

• Victoria, BC is the warmest place in Canada, in terms of average annual temperature, and BC has milder weather than any other province.

• The highest temperature ever recorded in Canada was 49.6°C (121°F) in Lytton, BC on June 29, 2021. A few days later, most of the town burned down.

• The lowest temperature recorded in BC was −58.9°C (−74°F) in Smith River on January 31, 1947. That’s a difference of over 100 degrees Celsius (or just under 200 degrees Fahrenheit) between BC’s highest and lowest temperatures.

• On average, BC has over 1000 wildfires per year, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage annually. 42% are caused by humans and 58% by lightning.

• Greenpeace, the world’s most well-known environmental organization, was founded in Vancouver in 1969, in response to nuclear bomb testing in Alaska.

• With around 370 wineries, BC produces 1/3^rd of Canadian wine (only Ontario produces more).

• BC has long been considered to grow some of the best cannabis/marijuana in the world (known colloquially as “BC weed”. Along with the rest of Canada, it has been legal in BC since 2018, but was widely tolerated before that.

• There are more bears in British Columbia than any other province. BC is home to around 15,000 grizzly bears and 150,000 black bears. There are no polar bears in BC.

• The Fraser Valley is home to the largest population of wintering bald eagles in the world.

• Once almost extinct, 20,000 gray whales now swim the length of BC’s coast twice per year. There are also large numbers of orcas (killer whales), humpback whales, and dolphins off the coast of BC.

• Some endangered animals in BC include badgers, the Vancouver Island marmot, the spotted owl, and the American white pelican.

• BC’s economy is the 4^th largest in Canada. Traditionally based on resources like forestry and mining, it now also includes tourism and the filming industry, with 60+ movies and TV series filmed in Vancouver per year.

• BC has the highest cost of living in Canada, along with Ontario. The average cost of a house in Vancouver is over CAD $1 million.

• The center-left BC NDP party enjoys considerable popularity in the province. The party has provided six provincial leaders, including the current John Horgan since 2017. He has been considered Canada’s most popular premier, according to polls.

• Famous people born in BC include artist Emily Carr, former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, musician Matthew Good, actor Jason Priestley, model Pamela Anderson, and singer Nelly Furtado.

• Bands from BC include D.O.A., Trooper, the New Pornographers, Skinny Puppy, Econoline Crush, Moist, Front Line Assembly, and 3 Inches of Blood.

• Well-known companies that started in BC include HSBC, Jim Pattison Group (which owns Save-On Foods and numerous other companies across the country), London Drugs, 1-800-Got-Junk, Panago, The Keg, Cactus Club Café, and Milestones.

• White Spot opened Canada’s first drive-in restaurant in Vancouver in 1928, while the first McDonald’s and first Starbucks in Canada were opened in Vancouver in 1967 and 1987, respectively.

• A study found that 40% of people in BC under the age of 35 are vegetarian or vegan, more than any other province in Canada.

• Bathtub racing started in Nanaimo, BC, and the city is considered the bathtub racing capital of the world.

• A mythical creature similar to the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, called on Ogopogo, is thought to live in Okanagan Lake.

Facts About British Columbia History

• Indigenous people walked across the Beringia from Siberia to North America 20,000 to 12,000 years ago. Some of them traveled south through an ice corridor, while others travelled south along the coast of BC. Many of the oldest archaeological sites are underwater.

• Around 5000 years ago, indigenous people were living in permanent settlements and doing agriculture in BC.

• Prior to European contact, there were 60-100,000 native people in BC.

• The first European to see BC was most likely Juan de Fuca, a Greek sailing for Spain, who sailed through the strait between Washington and Vancouver in the 1590s. The strait now bears his name.

• In 1700, Canada’s most recent volcanic eruption happened at Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed in BC’s coastal mountains, killing an estimated 2000 people.

• In 1775, Spanish explorers sailed the BC coast and claimed the area for Spain.

• In 1778, British James Cook bought sea otter pelts in Vancouver Island, later selling them for a huge markup in Macau, sparking interest in BC.

• In the Nootka Conventions of the 1790s, the land north of Juan de Fuca Strait was official acquired by Britain.

• In the late 1700s and early 1800s, explorers working for the Northwest Company began arriving in BC from the eastern side of Canada. These included Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser, and David Thompson. Today many places in BC and other parts of Canada are named after them.

• After the Northwest Company and Hudson’s Bay Company merged in 1821, Fort Vancouver was built as a trading post in 1824. HBC essentially ran the province, which it called New Caledonia, and established its capital at Fort St. James.

• Fort Victoria was built on Vancouver Island in 1843, with the British laying claim to the island and the smaller Gulf Islands.

• In 1858, gold was found in the Thompson River east of Lytton, triggering a gold rush. Fort Langley grew rapidly as a staging point for traveling up to the Fraser River to the Thompson.

• News of the gold rush prompted officials in London, England to officially declare the region the Colony of British Columbia in 1858, with New Westminster (in modern metropolitan Vancouver) as its capital. Officials sent over were told to “found a second England on the shores of the Pacific”.   

• In the 1846 Treaty of Washington, the border between BC and America was established on the 49^th parallel.

• In the 1850s and 60s, more gold rushes centered on Cariboo led to the building of numerous roads and more infrastructure. These rushes crashed, leading to massive debt.

• In 1862, a smallpox epidemic, brought by Europeans, spread and killed 2/3^rd of BC’s indigenous population.

• In 1866, Vancouver Island was united with the mainland, with Victoria becoming the colony’s capital.

• In 1867, America purchased Alaska, with the possibility of BC becoming part of America, too.

• After Canada’s Confederation in 1867, BC joined as the 6^th province of Canada in 1871.

• From 1885 to 1951, the Potlach and other indigenous customs were banned in BC.

• In 1885, a railway connecting BC to eastern Canada was completed. The next year, the first trans-continental train reached Vancouver.

• Until 1928, there was no road from BC to the east, so cars had to travel south into the US to make the journey.

• In WWII, over 20,000 Japanese-Canadian citizens were interred in BC.

• The 1983 workers’ Solidarity Strike was the largest in the province’s history.

• In 1986, the World Fair, or Expo 86, was hosted by Vancouver.

• In 1986, the Coquihalla Highway was opened, cutting driving time from the BC interior to Vancouver down by 1.5 hours.

• In 1993, thousands of environmentalists protested against logging in Vancouver Island’s Clayoquot Sound. It was the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history until similar protests at Fairy Creek in 2021.

• BC hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.

• In 2002, Port Coquitlam pig farmer Robert Pickton was arrested and confessed to killing 49 people, one of the worst in Canadian history.

• In 2019, construction started on the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, which would disrupt old growth forests and indigenous communities and present risks for oil spills on the coast. Blockades were made by the Wetʼsuwetʼen people, gaining national attention, and continue to this day.

• In 2021, the issue of child gravesites at Canadian Indian Residential Schools regained national attention after the remains of 215 children were found at a school Kamloops.

• Also in 2021, a heat wave saw the recording of Canada’s highest temperature ever, 49.6°C (121°F) in Lytton, BC. The town burned down a few days later. With over 500 wildfires burning that summer, the province declared a state of emergency.

• Snowstorms around Christmas of 2022 resulted in chaos a the Vancouver International Airport, with thousands of passengers stranded for days.