declining for decades—to one filled with
software developers, consultants, mar-
keters, artists. And these people, more
often than not, choose to live in big cit-
ies. According to Florida, nearly 40 per
cent of Metro Vancouverites are now
employed in creative class jobs; among
downtown residents, that percentage
doubles. "Our cities are the arenas of
innovation," he told the QE crowd.
It's fair to say our Best Cities data jibes
with Florida's theory: Metro Vancouver
cities dominate the top spots on our list
and none rank poorly. That's good news
considering the region is home to more
than half of all B.C. residents (including
most BCBusiness readers).
And with that sort of size comes criti-
cal mass when it comes to the labour
force. "In Vancouver you can find peo-
ple who you just cannot find anywhere
else," says Peter Miron, senior research
associate at Environics. "If there are
only three people who specialize in a
niche, you're always going to find them
in the city." This labour specialization,
as Miron calls it, can only exist in mar-
kets large enough to support special-
ties—markets like Vancouver. "A lot of
the growth we've seen in cities is a result
of this diversification," Miron explains.
"If you look at the most successful cities
in Canada, for the most part they have
been large."
While Metro Vancouver may not
have a lot of head offices, it maintains
an impressively diverse economy base.
The region is Canada's gateway to Asia, it
has multibillion-dollar tech and film sec-
tors, and it's one of the world's mining
capitals, home to over 800 global min-
ing firms.
Yes, it's a famously expensive place
to set down roots. But as a place to work
and find work, Metro Vancouver has few
equals. As Richard Florida put it, "The
factories of our time are the Silicon Val-
leys, the Torontos, the Vancouvers."
January 2015 BCBusiness 49
Where Metro Vancouver residents work
SaLeS/
SeRviceS
16.64%
BuSineSS/
Finance
10.93%
Science
5.39%
gOveRnMent/
eDucatiOn/
ReLigiOn
7.60%
aRtS/
cuLtuRe/
SpORtS
2.50%
HeaLtH
4.11%
tRaDeS
8.54%
ManageMent
6.35%
OtHeR
2.61%
etc.
Data for residents over age 15 | Source: Environics Analytics, DemoStats 2014
5-YR HOUSE-
HOLD INCOME
GROWTH
5-YR
pOpULaTION
GROWTH
UNEMpLOYMENT
LabOUR
paRTICIpaTION
pEOpLE WITH
DEGREES
pEOpLE
USING
TRaNSIT
+12.93%
+9.54%
7.15%
66.43%
29.20%
19.51%
NotE: the figures used in our ranking are for
Vancouver proper; these are for the metro region
TOTaL METRO VaNCOUVER
pOpULaTION: 2.6 Million
