British Columbia, Canada

The province of British Columbia is located in western Canada. Since it sits in between the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Ocean, British Columbia's terrain includes everything from rocky shorelines and sandy beaches to forested mountains and arid interior plains. This region is bordered by Alberta in the east to the north and Yukon and Northwest Territories in the west. In 2021, it will have a population of 5,2 million, making it the third-largest province in Canada by population. As the provincial capital, Victoria, and its largest city, Vancouver are both located in British Columbia. 2.6 million people call Vancouver home, making it Canada's third-largest metropolis.

First human settlers arrived in British Columbia at least 10,000 years ago. These indigenous peoples include, but are not limited to, the Coast Salish, Tsilhqot'in, and Haida. Victoria, the Colony of Vancouver Island's capital, was founded in 1843 as a result of British colonial efforts at Fort Victoria. Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, established the Colony of British Columbia in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush (1858–1866). New Westminster was chosen and made the capital of the mainland colony by Moody. Victoria became the capital of the unified colony in 1866, when Vancouver Island and British Columbia were merged. The British Columbia Union Terms were adopted in 1871, making British Columbia Canada's sixth province.

There are distinct cultural influences from the British Isles, Europe, Asia, and Indigenous peoples in British Columbia. The majority of British Columbians are descended from the Isles of Britain, but a significant minority also have ancestry from mainland Europe, China, and South Asia. Approximately 5% of the population of Ontario is indigenous. In Canada, Christianity has the most adherents, but the percentage of British Columbians who claim to have no religious affiliation is above average. Many people in the Metro Vancouver area speak Punjabi, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese in addition to English, the official provincial language. Approximately one percent of British Columbians identify themselves as Franco-Columbians, and the Franco-Columbian community is recognized as a linguistic minority. It is estimated that British Columbia has at least 34 distinct Indigenous languages.

British Columbia's major industries include forestry, mining, film and video production, tourism, real estate, and construction, as well as wholesale and retail sales. Wood and paper products are the country's most important exports, along with copper, coal, and natural gas. The Port of Vancouver is North America's largest and most diverse port, and it commands high property values in the province. Agriculture thrives in the Fraser Valley and Okanagan despite the fact that less than 5% of the province's land is arable. In terms of GDP, the province and territory of British Columbia comes in at number four. The province is home to nearly half of all of Canada's publicly traded company.

Geographical Description of British Columbia

Northwest Territories and Alaska border British Columbia's western side; Yukon and the Northwest Territories border its northern side; Alberta borders its eastern side; and Washington, Idaho, and Montana borders its southern side. Even though the southern boundary of British Columbia was established by the Oregon Treaty of 1846, the province's history is intertwined with lands all the way down in California. Approximately 944,735 square kilometers of British Columbia's land area is covered by water (364,800 sq mi). More than 27,000 kilometers (17,000 miles) of rugged coastline adorns the province of British Columbia, the majority of which are uninhabited islands. It is the only province in Canada to have a coastline that meets the ocean.

Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is located on Vancouver Island's southeastern tip. From Campbell River to Victoria, only a small portion of Vancouver Island is inhabited. Western Vancouver Island and the entire coast are covered in temperate rainforest.

Located at the confluence of the Fraser River and Georgia Strait in British Columbia's southwest, Vancouver is the state's most populous city (an area often called the Lower Mainland). Abbotsford is the most populous city in terms of area. Vanderhoof is situated in the middle of the province.

Outdoor adventure and ecotourism have found fertile ground in the Coast Mountains and the numerous inlets of the Inside Passage, which provide some of British Columbia's most renowned and spectacular scenery. Most of the province is mountainous (more than 1,000 meters above sea level), with 60% forest and less than 5% arable.

inland from the coast, the Pacific Ocean has a calming effect on the province's interior. Dry inland forests and semi-arid valleys, range and canyon districts of the Central and Southern Interior, and boreal forest and subarctic prairie comprise the Northern Interior. Mountains in the north and south of the country have similar subalpine ecosystems.

As one of Canada's many regions for wine and cider-making, the Okanagan wine region stretches from Vernon to Osoyoos on the US border. The Cowichan Valley, located on Vancouver Island, and the Fraser Valley are two other wine regions in British Columbia.

Despite the fact that temperatures north of the Fraser Canyon, near the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson rivers, where the terrain is rugged and covered in desert-like vegetation, are frequently higher than those found in Kamloops and Penticton in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. Semiarid grassland covers much of the Interior Plateau. Land uses range from ranching at lower elevations to forestry up high.

There are few people and no infrastructure in British Columbia's mountainous northern third, with the exception of the Peace River Country, which contains British Columbia's portion of the Canadian Prairies, centered on Dawson Creek, east of the Rockies.

It is part of the Pacific Northwest and Cascadia bioregion with Alaska, Idaho (western) Montana, Oregon, Washington (northern) California, and British Columbia.

Economy of British Columbia

The economy of British Columbia is diverse, with service-producing industries accounting for the majority of the province's GDP. 27 major marine cargo and passenger terminals are also located here. Due to more temperate weather along the coast and in a few protected valleys in the southern part of the province (especially in the Fraser and Okanagan valleys), even though only 5% of British Columbia's vast 944,735 square kilometers (364,735 square miles) is arable, the province is agriculturally prosperous. For centuries, it has relied heavily on resource extraction, including logging, farming, and mining, to sustain its economy. A large number of western-based natural resource companies have their headquarters in Vancouver, which is the largest city in British Columbia. It also has a thriving housing market and a higher-than-average per capita income. There are a few areas of British Columbia that enjoy mild weather all year round, but most areas of the province experience cold winters and mild summertime temperatures, much like the rest of Canada. It is a subarctic climate in the Northern Interior, with extremely frigid winters. There are no major Canadian cities with nighttime temperatures below freezing in Vancouver in January. It has always been a resource-based economy, with the forestry industry at the heart of British Columbia's economy, but mining's importance has fluctuated. Most new jobs have been created in the construction and retail/service industries, which have been steadily losing ground as a percentage of total employment. The majority of these jobs are in finance, insurance, real estate, and corporate management; however, many non-metropolitan regions continue to rely heavily on resource extraction. Feature film production in Vancouver is the third-largest in North America, following Los Angeles and New York City.

The boom-and-bust pattern in British Columbia's economic history has had a significant impact on the province's politics, culture, and business climate. Commodity prices have had a significant impact on mining-related economic activity, which has had a negative impact on community health.

Canada's third largest economy, British Columbia, had a GDP of $309 billion in 2020 and a per capita GDP of $60,090. The debt-to-GDP ratio in British Columbia is expected to reach 15.0 percent in fiscal year 2019–20 and 16.1 percent in fiscal year 2021–22. With an annual growth rate of 9.6 percent from 2017 to 2021, British Columbia's economy grew faster than the rest of the country.