Most guides to Vancouver’s neighbourhoods include places that are not in Vancouver. Maple Ridge, Port Moody, North Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond turn up on these lists constantly, and every one of them is a separate city with its own mayor, council, tax rate and police force. Metro Vancouver lists them individually alongside the City of Vancouver as member jurisdictions.
Vancouver itself has 22 local areas. It publishes a census profile for each one, and their populations add up to exactly the city total of 663,905. Burnaby has no profile, because Burnaby is not part of the city.
So this guide covers the actual 22, with the City’s own data on who lives in each, what housing they live in, what it costs, and what transit they have. Where a figure is missing or shaky, it says so.
The 22 neighbourhoods, at a glance
| Neighbourhood | Population | Change since 2016 | Density (per ha) | Renters | Most common home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown | 69,705 | +12% | 188 | 61% | Tower apartment (95%) |
| Renfrew-Collingwood | 52,980 | +3% | 66 | 43% | Duplex (38%) |
| Kensington-Cedar Cottage | 50,855 | +3% | 70 | 45% | Duplex (44%) |
| West End | 47,750 | +1% | 242 | 81% | Tower apartment (79%) |
| Kitsilano | 44,480 | +3% | 81 | 58% | Low-rise apartment (66%) |
| Mount Pleasant | 37,485 | +14% | 103 | 60% | Low-rise apartment (52%) |
| Sunset | 37,170 | +2% | 59 | 49% | Duplex (54%) |
| Hastings-Sunrise | 35,405 | +2% | 45 | 43% | Duplex (43%) |
| Fairview | 33,970 | +1% | 104 | 59% | Low-rise apartment (59%) |
| Killarney | 32,990 | +12% | 50 | 43% | Row house (30%) |
| Victoria-Fraserview | 30,755 | −1% | 58 | 41% | Duplex (43%) |
| Grandview-Woodland | 28,780 | −1% | 65 | 63% | Low-rise apartment (65%) |
| Marpole | 27,810 | +14% | 50 | 59% | Low-rise apartment (44%) |
| Riley Park | 23,680 | +5% | 48 | 43% | Duplex (36%) |
| Dunbar-Southlands | 21,970 | +3% | 26 | 27% | Detached house (63%) |
| Arbutus-Ridge | 15,305 | +0.1% | 41 | 41% | Detached house (40%) |
| Kerrisdale | 14,885 | +7% | 24 | 40% | Detached house (47%) |
| Oakridge | 13,755 | +6% | 34 | 43% | Detached house (38%) |
| Strathcona | 13,235 | +5% | 34 | 78% | Low-rise apartment (41%) |
| West Point Grey | 12,885 | −1% | 29 | 40% | Detached house (44%) |
| South Cambie | 9,850 | +24% | 45 | 42% | Low-rise apartment (39%) |
| Shaughnessy | 8,205 | −3% | 18 | 28% | Detached house (65%) |
Source: City of Vancouver, 2025 Social Indicators and Trends Profiles, using 2021 Census data. These are refreshed after the 2026 Census, so the demographic figures are five years old while the prices and transit facts below are current.
A few things jump out. The West End packs 242 people per hectare and Shaughnessy 18, a thirteenfold difference inside one city. Four in five West End residents rent; three in four Dunbar-Southlands residents own. And South Cambie grew 24 per cent in five years while Shaughnessy shrank.
What each area costs
Renting
CMHC surveys rents by its own zones, which do not map neatly onto the City’s 22 areas, so read these as a guide to relative cost rather than exact neighbourhood figures. All unit sizes combined, October 2025:
| Zone | Average rent | Vacancy |
|---|---|---|
| Marpole | $1,540 | 2.6% |
| East Hastings | $1,827 | 3.8% |
| Mount Pleasant / Renfrew Heights | $1,903 | 2.5% |
| West End / Stanley Park | $1,914 | 1.7% |
| South Granville / Oak | $1,929 | 1.8% |
| Southeast Vancouver | $1,968 | 2.4% |
| English Bay | $2,020 | 2.7% |
| Kitsilano / Point Grey | $2,051 | 1.7% |
| Downtown | $2,198 | 4.3% |
| Westside / Kerrisdale | $2,385 | 2.4% |
Source: CMHC Housing Market Information Portal, October 2025.
Downtown’s 4.3 per cent vacancy is the loosest submarket in the city, which is useful if you are negotiating. Kitsilano and the West End sit at 1.7, which is not.
Buying
The real estate board splits the city in two at Ontario Street rather than by neighbourhood, and the gap is enormous. August 2026 benchmark prices:
| Property type | Vancouver East | Vancouver West |
|---|---|---|
| Detached house | $1,621,400 | $2,932,700 |
| Townhouse | $985,400 | $1,334,900 |
Greater Vancouver Realtors, August 2026. The Greater Vancouver apartment benchmark was $686,200.
Roughly $1.3 million separates an east-side house from a west-side one. That single number explains more about where people actually end up than any list of neighbourhood virtues. Our breakdown of what living here costs takes the rest of the budget apart, from property tax to transit fares.
Transit is the thing most guides get wrong
Two facts worth having before you sign anything.
Ten of the 22 neighbourhoods have no SkyTrain station at all: Arbutus-Ridge, Dunbar-Southlands, Hastings-Sunrise, Kerrisdale, Killarney, Kitsilano, Shaughnessy, Victoria-Fraserview, West End and West Point Grey. Between them they hold well over 200,000 people. Vancouver’s densest neighbourhood, the West End, has no station. Kitsilano has 44,480 residents and none.
What those areas do have is bus service, and in Vancouver that is not a consolation prize. Seven of the ten busiest bus routes in the entire region run through the city. TransLink’s 2025 boardings:
- 99 B-Line (Commercial-Broadway to UBC): 10,655,000 boardings, the busiest bus route in North America
- R4 41st Avenue: 8,592,000
- 49 (Metrotown to UBC): 8,582,000
- 25 (Brentwood to UBC): 6,361,000
- 16 (29th Avenue Station to Arbutus): 5,273,000
The Broadway Subway opens in fall 2027, not 2026. The date has moved twice, from 2025 to 2026 to its current fall 2027 estimate, with vehicle testing under way as of May 2026. Any guide still promising a 2025 or 2026 opening is out of date.
When it does open, the 5.7-kilometre Millennium Line extension adds six stations from VCC-Clark to Arbutus, cutting that trip to about 11 minutes and carrying roughly three times what the 99 B-Line does now:
| Station | Where | Serves |
|---|---|---|
| Great Northern Way–Emily Carr | Thornton St | Mount Pleasant / Strathcona edge |
| Mount Pleasant | Broadway & Main | Mount Pleasant |
| Broadway–City Hall | Broadway & Cambie | Fairview, interchange with Canada Line |
| Oak–VGH | Broadway & Laurel | Fairview, Vancouver General Hospital |
| South Granville | Broadway & Granville | Fairview, South Granville shops |
| Arbutus | Broadway & Arbutus | Kitsilano / Arbutus-Ridge edge |
Sources: Province of British Columbia, May 2026 and the Broadway Subway Project. Ridership from TransLink’s Buzzer blog, 2025 figures.
If you are buying in Fairview, Mount Pleasant or the eastern edge of Kitsilano, you are buying ahead of that line. If you are renting there, expect it in your rent by 2028.
Green space, measured rather than asserted
Every guide calls Vancouver neighbourhoods leafy. The City actually measured it. Canopy cover by neighbourhood, 2022:
| Neighbourhood | Canopy | Neighbourhood | Canopy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shaughnessy | 41% | Kensington-Cedar Cottage | 20% |
| Dunbar-Southlands | 35% | Grandview-Woodland | 20% |
| West Point Grey | 34% | Hastings-Sunrise | 18% |
| Kerrisdale | 33% | Marpole | 17% |
| Killarney | 31% | Renfrew-Collingwood | 16% |
| Kitsilano | 28% | Victoria-Fraserview | 16% |
| Arbutus-Ridge | 25% | Sunset | 14% |
| Riley Park | 24% | Downtown | 13% |
| Oakridge / South Cambie / West End | 23% | Strathcona | 9% |
| Fairview | 21% | Citywide | 25% |
Source: City of Vancouver Tree Canopy Assessment, 2022. Its target is 30 per cent by 2050.
Four and a half times more canopy covers Shaughnessy than Strathcona. Canopy grew everywhere between 2018 and 2022, but the City notes the gap between the greenest and least green areas widened, and that low-canopy areas feel heat waves more sharply. Worth thinking about if you are moving with young children or an older relative.
The neighbourhoods, grouped by what they actually offer
If you want to live without a car
Downtown is 95 per cent tower apartments and the second-densest area in the city, with six SkyTrain stations, the Central Library, St Paul’s Hospital and Stanley Park at the end of it. Only 7 per cent of residents are children. It grew 12 per cent in five years and has the highest rental vacancy in the city.
West End is the density record-holder at 242 people per hectare, 81 per cent renters, and the smallest average household in Vancouver at 1.5 people. Robson and Denman for shops, Davie Village, English Bay and Stanley Park on the doorstep. No SkyTrain station, but you can walk to three.
Mount Pleasant grew 14 per cent and is 60 per cent renters. Main Street is its spine, and it gets two Broadway Subway stations in 2027. This is the area whose transit improves most in the next two years.
Fairview covers South Granville, Broadway and False Creek. Nearly 60 per cent renters, a fifth aged 65-plus, and three of the six new subway stations including the one at Vancouver General.
If you want a house and can afford the west side
Dunbar-Southlands is 63 per cent detached houses, 73 per cent owner-occupied, 35 per cent tree canopy and the second-lowest density in the city. Dunbar Street is the village. There is no SkyTrain here, and none planned.
Kerrisdale, 47 per cent detached, a fifth aged 65-plus, and a proper village high street on West Boulevard. Growth of 7 per cent puts it ahead of most west-side areas.
Shaughnessy is the extreme: 65 per cent detached, 18 people per hectare, 41 per cent canopy, and the only neighbourhood that shrank 3 per cent. No shopping street, no community centre, no library branch of its own.
West Point Grey, 44 per cent detached, Point Grey Village on West 10th, Jericho and Locarno beaches. Population fell 1 per cent. Note that UBC is not in Vancouver: the Point Grey campus sits on the University Endowment Lands, governed directly by the Province.
If you want a house and cannot
This is where the east side earns its reputation, and where the duplex is king.
Kensington-Cedar Cottage is 44 per cent duplex, 50,855 people, Victoria Drive for shops and Trout Lake for summer. Nanaimo Station on the Expo Line.
Hastings-Sunrise, 43 per cent duplex, 19 per cent aged 65-plus, Hastings Street and the PNE grounds. Bus only.
Renfrew-Collingwood is the second-largest neighbourhood at 52,980 and the best-served on the east side, with four Expo Line stations. Kingsway is the commercial spine.
Sunset holds the largest average household in Vancouver at 2.9 people, 54 per cent duplex, Fraser Street and Main Street, and Langara College.
Victoria-Fraserview and Killarney are the quiet southeast. Killarney is 30 per cent row house, by far the highest share in the city, thanks to the Champlain Heights townhouse developments, and it grew 12 per cent.
Character and change
Grandview-Woodland, home of Commercial Drive, is 63 per cent renters and 65 per cent low-rise apartment. It is one of only four areas that lost population. Note the spelling: Woodland is singular, and Commercial Drive is a street inside this neighbourhood, not a separate one.
Strathcona is Vancouver’s most rented neighbourhood at 78 per cent and has the lowest tree canopy at 9 per cent. It contains most of the Downtown Eastside, which the City describes as spanning both Strathcona and Downtown. The area is also one of the oldest parts of the city, with a strong community fabric. People move here and stay; others find it too much. Walk it before you decide.
Marpole grew 14 per cent, is the cheapest rental zone in the city at $1,540, and has Marine Drive Station on the Canada Line. Low canopy at 17 per cent.
South Cambie grew 24 per cent, the fastest in Vancouver, on the back of the Cambie Corridor plan. Oakridge next door is being rebuilt around its mall and station. Both are in transition, which cuts both ways: new housing, and years of construction.
Riley Park holds Queen Elizabeth Park, 52 hectares and the highest point in the city at 125 metres, plus Hillcrest Centre and Main Street’s southern stretch.
Arbutus-Ridge is the oldest neighbourhood in Vancouver by share of residents 65-plus, at 25 per cent, and effectively did not grow at all.
What about safety?
Crime in Vancouver is heavily concentrated, and looking at it neighbourhood by neighbourhood changes the picture completely. Two of the 22 areas account for 43 per cent of all reported offences. We have set out the police data in full, including where it is misleading, in our guide to what Vancouver’s crime numbers actually say.
Frequently asked questions
Is Maple Ridge a Vancouver neighbourhood?
No. Maple Ridge is a separate city roughly 45 kilometres east of Vancouver, with its own council and its own police service. The same goes for Port Moody, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey and both North Vancouvers, which are two distinct municipalities rather than one. If the North Shore is what you actually meant, we have a separate guide to North Vancouver’s neighbourhoods.
What is the nicest neighbourhood in Vancouver?
Depends what you are optimising for, which is why this guide gives you the underlying numbers rather than a ranking. Shaughnessy, Dunbar-Southlands and Kerrisdale score highest on space and greenery and cost the most. Downtown, the West End and Mount Pleasant score highest on transit and walkability. Kensington-Cedar Cottage and Hastings-Sunrise offer the most house per dollar.
Which Vancouver neighbourhood is best for families?
By share of residents under 15, Killarney, Riley Park and Dunbar-Southlands lead at 14 per cent. Sunset households are the largest in the city on average. One caution: Vancouver School Board catchments follow street addresses, not neighbourhood names, and downtown catchments were redrawn in autumn 2025. Check the specific address on the VSB boundary map before you sign.
Where is the cheapest place to rent in Vancouver?
Marpole, at an average of $1,540 across all unit sizes in CMHC’s October 2025 survey, roughly $845 a month below the Westside/Kerrisdale zone.
Which neighbourhoods are getting SkyTrain?
Mount Pleasant and Fairview gain stations from the Broadway Subway in fall 2027, with the western terminus at Arbutus on the Kitsilano boundary. No other new stations are under construction inside the city.
Is Kitsilano or Mount Pleasant better?
Kitsilano is bigger at 44,480 people, greener at 28 per cent canopy, has the beaches and costs more to rent at around $2,051 in its CMHC zone. Mount Pleasant is growing faster at 14 per cent, rents for less at around $1,903, and is the one getting two subway stations. Kits is the finished article; Mount Pleasant is still changing.
How we put this together
Demographics come from the City of Vancouver’s 2025 Social Indicators and Trends Profiles, one per local area, using 2021 Census data. Rents are CMHC’s October 2025 survey. Prices are Greater Vancouver Realtors, August 2026. Tree canopy is the City’s 2022 assessment. Transit facts come from TransLink and the Province.
Three honest limits. The census figures are from May 2021 and sit alongside 2025 and 2026 price and transit data, so they are not the same vintage. CMHC’s rental zones do not line up exactly with the City’s 22 local areas. And the City does not publish median household income by neighbourhood in a form we could extract, so it is not in the table above rather than being estimated.
Sources
- City of Vancouver, Social Indicators and Trends Profiles, 2025 edition
- City of Vancouver, Tree Canopy Assessment 2022
- Metro Vancouver, member jurisdictions
- Broadway Subway Project, stations
- Province of BC, Broadway Subway testing update, May 2026
- TransLink, busiest stations and bus routes of 2025
- CMHC, 2025 Rental Market Report
- Vancouver School Board, catchment boundaries
- City of Vancouver, community centres
Picked one? The cost breakdown prices out the rest of the budget, and the crime numbers deal with the question most people ask next. We move people between all 22 of these every week, and we know which buildings have a loading bay and which have a lift you need to book, whether you are heading downtown, east, south or out to Kitsilano and the west side. Tell us where you are going.
