If you guessed Toronto, you wouldn’t be wrong.

The Toronto metropolitan area, with a regional population of more than 5 million, is home to roughly 2.3 million people who were born outside of Canada.

But you might be surprised to learn that the Vancouver suburb of Richmond is the city with the highest percentage of immigrant residents.

According to Richmond’s most recent census (2006), “Immigrants make up 57.4% of the city’s population, which is the highest proportion of any municipality in Canada.” The immigrant population of Greater Toronto is just under 50% of the region’s total population.

More than 80 percent of immigrants to Richmond come from Asia and the Middle East, particularly China (26.8%) and Hong Kong (23%). Just over 10 percent come from Europe (especially the UK), with another five percent hailing from the Americas or elsewhere in the world.

Interestingly, a significant majority of Richmond’s immigrants have been in Canada long enough to have been granted Canadian citizenship. More than 86% of Richmond residents are Canadian citizens.

Across Canada, about 20 percent of Canadian residents were born outside the country, approximately one out of every five people. In the U.S., in contrast, immigrants make up only about 12 percent of the population.

Photo ©Carolyn B. Heller