Understanding who makes up our community and where they come from helps to identify patterns and the services needed for the people who live here.

Population location In 2006, 67.1% of Greater Victoria residents lived in the Urban Core, compared to 16.9% in the West Shore, 11.7% on the Peninsula and 4.3% on the Gulf Islands. Over the past five years, the greatest increase in population has been in the West Shore.
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Ethnic origin The 2006 Census showed that 17.6% of Greater Victoria residents report non-European ethnic origins including Aboriginal communities, Latin America, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Pacific islands, the Caribbean and the Middle East. This compares to 33.1% of BC residents who report non-European ethnic origins.
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Household size The average household in Greater Victoria in 2006 had 2.2 people. The average household size in BC was 2.5.
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Household type Of all the households in Greater Victoria in 2006, 65.4% were occupied by one family, 2.5% were occupied by multiple families and 32.1% were non-family households where either one person lived alone or the people who shared it weren't considered a family.
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Living Alone In 2006, 32.3% of Greater Victoria's population over 65 years of age were living alone compared to 11.5% of those under 65. This is significantly more than the 27.3% of seniors that were living alone in BC in 2006.
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Capital Region Population, 2008
Source: BC Statistics (estimates)