Surrey, British Columbia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Surrey |
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City |
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| City of Surrey | |
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From top, left to right: Whalley City Centre, Crescent Beach, Holland Park, Surrey City Hall, Newton Town Centre |
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Flag 
Coat of arms 
Logo |
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| Nickname:
City of Parks |
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| Motto(s):
Progressio per diversitatem |
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Location of Surrey in Metro Vancouver |
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Coordinates:  49°11′24″N 122°50′56″WCoordinates: 49°11′24″N 122°50′56″W |
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| Country | Canada |
| Province | British Columbia |
| Regional district | Metro Vancouver |
| Incorporated[2] | November 10, 1879 (municipality status) |
| September 11, 1993 (city status) | |
| Named for | Surrey |
| Seat | Surrey City Hall |
| Government | |
| • Type | Mayor-council government |
| • Body | Surrey City Council |
| • Mayor | Brenda Locke (Surrey Connect) |
| • MLAs |
List of MLAs |
| • MPs |
List of MPs |
| • Surrey School Board |
List of trustees |
| Area | |
| • Land | 316.11 km2 (122.05 sq mi) |
| • Rank | 3rd in British Columbia |
| Highest elevation | 134 m (440 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
| Population
(2021)[5] |
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| • Total | 568,322 |
| • Estimate
(2022)[6] |
633,234 |
| • Rank |
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| • Density | 1,797.9/km2 (4,657/sq mi) |
| Demonym | Surreyite[7] |
| Time zone | UTC−08:00 (PST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−07:00 (PDT) |
| Forward sortation area | |
| Area codes | 604, 778, 236, 672 |
| Website | www |
Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Surrey is the province's second-largest by population after Vancouver and the third-largest by area after Abbotsford and Prince George. Seven neighbourhoods in Surrey are designated town centres: Cloverdale, Fleetwood, Guildford, Newton, South Surrey, and City Centre encompassed by Whalley.[8]
Surrey was incorporated in 1879, and encompasses land formerly occupied by a number of Halqemeylem-speaking indigenous groups. When Englishman H.J. Brewer looked across the Fraser River from New Westminster and saw a land reminiscent of his native County of Surrey in England, the settlement of Surrey was placed on the map.[9] The area then comprised forests of douglas fir, fir, red cedar, hemlock, blackberry bushes, and cranberry bogs. A portion of present-day Whalley (named after Harry Whalley, who owned and operated a gas bar at the bend in King George Blvd, (formerly King George Highway) at 108 Avenue, "Whalley's Corner") was used as a burial ground by the Kwantlen (or Qw'ontl'en) Nation.
Settlers arrived first in Cloverdale and parts of South Surrey, mostly to farm, fish, harvest oysters, or set up small stores. Once the Pattullo Bridge was erected in 1937, the way was open for Surrey to expand. In the post-war 1950s, North Surrey's neighbourhoods filled with single-family homes and Surrey (not yet a city) became a bedroom community, absorbing commuters who worked in Burnaby or Vancouver.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the city witnessed unprecedented growth, as people from different parts of Canada and the world, particularly Asia, began to make the municipality their home. In 2013, it was projected to surpass the city of Vancouver as the most populous city in BC within the following 10 to 12 years.[10]
Surrey is governed by the elected Surrey City Council comprising the mayor and eight councillors. The current mayor is Brenda Locke, who took office on October 15, 2022.[3] The last elections were held in October 2015. Current City Councillors are: Linda Annis, Doug Elford, Laurie Guerra, Jack Singh Hundial, Brenda Locke, Mandeep Nagra, Allison Patton, and Steven Pettigrew.[3]
| Year | Liberal | Conservative | New Democratic | Green | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 44% | 91,045 | 30% | 60,927 | 21% | 42,791 | 1% | 1,729 | |
| 2019 | 39% | 83,925 | 32% | 69,931 | 22% | 46,759 | 5% | 11,853 | |
| Year | New Democratic | BC Liberal | Green | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 54% | 94,084 | 37% | 63,251 | 7% | 11,781 | |
| 2017 | 47% | 85,738 | 41% | 75,056 | 10% | 19,064 | |
In the 2020 provincial election, the BC NDP kept at least their previously six elected MLAs (potentially seven), while the number of MLAs for the BC Liberals will have between two and three.
In 1997, Gurmant Grewal became the first visible minority elected in Surrey.[citation needed] In 2004, when his wife, Nina was elected to parliament, they became the first married couple to serve Canadian parliament concurrently.[citation needed] Following the 2015 federal election, the Liberal Party of Canada won three of Surrey's four seats in the House of Commons of Canada. Conservative MP Dianne Watts resigned her South Surrey-White Rock seat in 2017 to compete for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party. In the subsequent 2017 by-election, the Liberal candidate Gordie Hogg defeated former Conservative MP and federal cabinet minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1921 | 5,814 | — |
| 1931 | 8,388 | +44.3% |
| 1941 | 14,840 | +76.9% |
| 1951 | 33,670 | +126.9% |
| 1956 | 49,366 | +46.6% |
| 1961 | 70,838 | +43.5% |
| 1966 | 81,826 | +15.5% |
| 1971 | 98,601 | +20.5% |
| 1976 | 116,497 | +18.1% |
| 1981 | 147,138 | +26.3% |
| 1986 | 181,447 | +23.3% |
| 1991 | 245,173 | +35.1% |
| 1996 | 304,477 | +24.2% |
| 2001 | 347,825 | +14.2% |
| 2006 | 394,976 | +13.6% |
| 2011 | 468,251 | +18.6% |
| 2016 | 517,887 | +10.6% |
| 2021 | 568,322 | +9.7% |
| Source: Statistics Canada[13][14][15][16][5] | ||
In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, Surrey had a population of 568,322 living in 185,671 of its 195,098 total private dwellings, a change of 9.7% from its 2016 population of 517,887. With a land area of 316.11 km2 (122.05 sq mi), it had a population density of 1,797.9/km2 (4,656.4/sq mi) in 2021.[5]
Surrey is the 11th largest city in Canada, and is also the fifth-largest city in Western Canada (after Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Vancouver). Surrey forms an integral part of Metro Vancouver as it is the second largest city in the region, albeit while also serving as the secondary economic core of the metropolitan area. When combined with the City of Vancouver, both cities account for nearly 50 percent of the region's population. In recent years, a rapidly expanding urban core in Downtown Surrey, located in Whalley has transformed the area into the secondary downtown core in Metro Vancouver.[17][18]
Within the City of Surrey itself feature many neighbourhoods including City Centre, Whalley, Newton, Guildford, Fleetwood, Cloverdale and South Surrey. Each neighbourhood is unique and includes ethnically diverse populations. While Europeans and South Asians can be found in large numbers across the city, areas which house a large proportion of the former include South Surrey (72 percent) and Cloverdale (69 percent), with Newton (58 percent) and Whalley (51 percent) being home to large numbers of the latter.[19][20][21][22]
Immigration to Surrey has drastically increased since the 1980s; this has created a more ethnically and linguistically diverse city. 52 percent do not speak English as their first language, while approximately 38 percent of the city's inhabitants are of South Asian heritage. Beginning in the 1990s, an influx of South Asians began moving to the city from neighbouring Vancouver due to rising housing costs and rapidly increasing rent costs for businesses.[23] The outflow of these residents combined with increased immigration from the Indian Subcontinent therefore established in Surrey one of the largest concentrations of South Asian residents in North America.[24]
Other significant groups which reside in the city include East Asians[a] (10.9 percent) and Southeast Asians[b] (9.7 percent).[25] Forming nearly 2.3 percent of the total population, the Black community of Surrey is small however the city is home to the largest Black population in British Columbia; roughly 21 percent of the entire Black community in the province resides in Surrey.[25] Similar to most cities across Canada, a large majority (64 percent) of Surrey residents of European heritage can trace their roots to the British Isles.[26]
| Panethnic group | 2021[27][25] | 2016[28][29] | 2011[30][31] | 2006[32] | 2001[33] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | |
| South Asian | 212,680 | 37.81% | 168,040 | 32.85% | 142,445 | 30.74% | 107,810 | 27.47% | 75,680 | 21.89% |
| European[c] | 173,155 | 30.78% | 198,835 | 38.87% | 208,625 | 45.03% | 203,815 | 51.93% | 211,870 | 61.27% |
| East Asian[a] | 61,360 | 10.91% | 52,025 | 10.17% | 39,270 | 8.48% | 29,965 | 7.64% | 23,600 | 6.83% |
| Southeast Asian[b] | 54,635 | 9.71% | 44,875 | 8.77% | 39,560 | 8.54% | 25,795 | 6.57% | 16,440 | 4.75% |
| African | 12,870 | 2.29% | 9,455 | 1.85% | 6,150 | 1.33% | 5,015 | 1.28% | 3,810 | 1.1% |
| Middle Eastern[d] | 12,620 | 2.24% | 9,485 | 1.85% | 5,615 | 1.21% | 3,595 | 0.92% | 2,300 | 0.67% |
| Indigenous | 12,175 | 2.16% | 13,460 | 2.63% | 10,955 | 2.36% | 7,630 | 1.94% | 6,895 | 1.99% |
| Latin American | 8,830 | 1.57% | 7,065 | 1.38% | 5,340 | 1.15% | 3,785 | 0.96% | 3,315 | 0.96% |
| Other/multiracial[e] | 14,240 | 2.53% | 8,315 | 1.63% | 5,385 | 1.16% | 5,050 | 1.29% | 1,880 | 0.54% |
| Total responses | 562,565 | 98.99% | 511,540 | 98.77% | 463,340 | 98.95% | 392,450 | 99.36% | 345,780 | 99.41% |
| Total population | 568,322 | 100% | 517,887 | 100% | 468,251 | 100% | 394,976 | 100% | 347,825 | 100% |
| Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses | ||||||||||
Religion in Surrey (2021)[34]
Christianity (30.2%)
Sikhism (27.4%)
Islam (5.5%)
Hinduism (5.4%)
Buddhism (1.9%)
Judaism (0.2%)
Indigenous (0.1%)
Other (0.5%)
Irreligion (28.8%)
Proportionally, Surrey has the largest Sikh population percentage (27.4 percent) out of all subdivisions in Canada.
As of 2021, the top five most reported religious affiliations in Surrey were Christianity (170,115 or 30.2 percent), Irreligion (161,860 or 28.6 percent), Sikhism (154,415 or 27.4 percent), Islam (31,095 or 5.5 percent), and Hinduism (30,455 or 5.4 percent).[34]
| Mother tongue | Population | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| English | 243,510 | 43.2% |
| Punjabi | 128,305 | 22.7% |
| Mandarin | 28,080 | 5.0% |
| Tagalog | 18,640 | 3.3% |
| Hindi | 14,540 | 2.6% |
| Korean | 8,690 | 1.5% |
| Cantonese | 8,165 | 1.4% |
| Spanish | 7,565 | 1.3% |
| Vietnamese | 6,860 | 1.2% |
| Arabic | 6,135 | 1.1% |
| Urdu | 5,820 | 1.0% |
| Persian (including Dari) | 3,115 | 0.6% |
| French | 2,910 | 0.5% |
| German | 2,860 | 0.5% |
As of 2010, Surrey had the highest median family income of CA$78,283, while the BC provincial median was $71,660, and the national median was $74,540. The average family income was $85,765.[35] South Surrey area had the highest average household income of all six town centres in Surrey, with an average of $86,824 as of 2010. Median household income was also high at $62,960.[36] South Surrey's neighbourhood of Rosemary Heights is the richest in Surrey and throughout the Metro Vancouver area, with a median income more than twice the regional average.[37]
As of 2010, the median household income of Surrey was $67,702 (versus the national median of $76,437), where 29.4 percent of households in Surrey earned a household total income of $100,000 or more, which is above the national average of 25.9 percent.[35][38]
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