Who might the next 120,000 Vancouverites be?
For most of the City of Vancouver’s history, population growth has symbolized the vitality and the desirability of the City and its region. In its first 25 years, Vancouver grew by 700 percent. Since the end of the Second World War, the City has grown steadily by 15 percent every 10 years with the exception of a downturn in the early 1980s. Projecting into 2021, Vancouver is set to grow another 15 percent by 2011 and 6 percent by 2021. If these projections are true, a major planning dilemma for the City will be where to put the next 120,000 new Vancouverites in the next 12 years.
Growth by itself does not necessarily shape cities. Questions of “how many?” need to be tempered by inquiries into “Who they are?” The answers between these two questions have deep implications in shaping the economic, social, and cultural life of any city. In this next series of entries, we’ll explore some of the characteristics, distribution, and consequences of recent population growth in the City of Vancouver - all of which perhaps provides a glimpse into the City’s future.