Vancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a British explorer.
The name Vancouver itself originates from the Dutch van Coevorden.
According to the 2006 Census, the city of Vancouver had a population of 578,041 and its Census Metropolitan Area. As of July 2009, the city estimated population was 615,473 and that of the metropolitan area, Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada and the third largest in the country, although as a municipality it is ranked eighth nationally.
Vancouver is ethnically diverse, with 52% of city residents having a first language other than English.
Vancouver was first settled by Europeans in the 1860s as a result of immigration to the Colony of British Columbia caused by the Fraser and Cariboo Gold Rushes, though only a very few settled in what would become the city of Vancouver.
The city roots are based in logging and the founding of a large lumber mill, which gave birth to Gastown. The settlement expanded rapidly in the 1880s into a metropolitan centre following the arrival of the transcontinental railway in 1887.
The Port of Vancouver became internationally significant as a node in the global trade network of the British Empire with the combined steamship and railway of the Canadian Pacific Railway shortening shipping times from the Orient to London.
The port is now the busiest in Canada, and the fourth largest port in North America.
Prior to the 1980s, the economy of Vancouver had traditionally relied on British Columbia resource sectors forestry, mining, fishing. It has diversified over the past 30 years.
Today its second largest industry, after forestry, is tourism, and it has become the third largest film production centre in North America after Los Angeles and New York City, earning it the nickname Hollywood North.
Vancouver ranks as one of the most livable cities in the world for more than a decade. and is a destination for many international conferences and events, including the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in 1976 and the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication. The 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics held in Vancouver and nearby Whistler, a mountain town 125 km north of the city.
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