Visible minorities account for one million people or 45.2 per cent of the population of Metro Vancouver, according to newly released voluntary census data.
The National Household Survey conducted by Statistics Canada in 2011 found visible minorities make up a majority of the population in Metro Vancouver’s four largest cities.
Richmond’s visible minorities made up 70.4 per cent of its population, while the equivalent numbers were 59.5 per cent in Burnaby, 52.6 per cent in Surrey and 51.8 per cent in Vancouver.
The largest visible minority groups in Metro Vancouver were Chinese (411,000), South Asian (252,000) and Fillipino (112,000).
Metro Vancouver was home to 913,000 immigrants or 40 per cent of the population.
B.C. had 945,000 people with no reported religious affiliation, almost as many as the 950,000 identified Christians.
Nearly 156,000 Sikhs live in Metro Vancouver, according to the survey, while another 28,200 are in the Fraser Valley.
About 73,200 of Canada’s one million Muslims live in Metro Vancouver.
