Why Isn't Vancouver (CN) a Megacity?

[giallo]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Vancouver will never reach megacity status... Because at just under 700k in the city limits, and just over 2.65M people in the CMA/Metro it's been prohibitively expensive for decades.

Metro Vancouver had a population of 2.6m in 2017 when the province had 4.8m people. The province is now at 5.4m due to the population explosion in the country. If Metro Vancouver isn't over 3m as of right now, I'll eat my hat. It feels like it's bursting at the seams with people. The Lower Mainland (including Abbotsford and Chilliwack) would be over 3.3m.

https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/soe/indica...opulation.html

Originally Posted by Wigs

The price of rentals is wild. Apparently Vancouver just hit an all time high with a median of $2,800 or ~$2,070 USD/month for a 1 bedroom apartment.

As of this week, it hit of high of $3,000 which is just depressing. Housing in Canada is in a really, really bad place, and it's affecting absolutely everything.

[someone123]

Another point that has sort of been addressed is that BC is difficult to develop due to mountains. The Lower Mainland is cut in half by the US border as well. BC has a small rural population and Vancouver doesn't have a very populated hinterland.

[kool maudit]

Why would it be? Almost none of the preconditions are in place.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by giallo

Metro Vancouver had a population of 2.6m in 2017 when the province had 4.8m people. The province is now at 5.4m at the end of 2022 due to the population explosion in the country. If Metro Vancouver isn't over 3m as of right now, I'll eat my hat. It feels like it's bursting at the seams with people. The Lower Mainland (including Abbotsford and Chilliwack) would be over 3.3m.

https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/soe/indica...opulation.html




As of this week, it hit of high of $3,000 which is just depressing. Housing in Canada is in a really, really bad place, and it's affecting absolutely everything.

I was using the 2021 CMA population figure which was 2,642,825, up from the 2016 census of 2,463,431

$3000 is even worse than 2800 because it's on the next digit

[Scaevola]

If the US and Canada were one country and Vancouver was not limited to being a border city and had a higher domestic population to draw from, how much larger would it theoretically be able to grow?

[Steely Dan]

FTR, according to this list from Wikipedia, here's the breakdown of megacities by continent.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megacity

Asia: 32
S. America: 5
Africa: 4
Europe: 4
N. America: 3


Outside of Asia, they are not terribly common.

[Scaevola]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

FTR, according to this list from Wikipedia, here's the breakdown of megacities by continent.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megacity

Asia: 32
S. America: 5
Africa: 4
Europe: 4
N. America: 3


Outside of Asia, they are not terribly common.

True. As per this list, I think the country with the smallest economy that still has a megacity would be D.R. Congo with Kinshasa (15/16 million). As for population, Peru has about 33 million people and Lima is about to cross over into being a megacity (9.7 million).

[Doady]

With global warming, more and more people will be looking to northward, especially to Canada. And when the USA's inevitable invasion and annexation of Canada happens, then Vancouver would no longer be so isolated, and that might give a chance to become a megacity. Annexation would also help to bring down the housing costs since development would no longer be constrained by the US border.

[SnowFire]

Originally Posted by Scaevola

If the US and Canada were one country and Vancouver was not limited to being a border city and had a higher domestic population to draw from, how much larger would it theoretically be able to grow?

It would be smaller. Its a border city drawing in money from overseas. If it was in the us it would not come or go to Seattle.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by SnowFire

It would be smaller. Its a border city drawing in money from overseas. If it was in the us it would not come or go to Seattle.

Right. Vancouver's big global appeal is as a foreign investment/tax hedge. If it were in U.S., there would be no major advantage for Chinese nationals, so prices would likely drop. And the climate/location/scenery would no longer stand alone. I'd imagine it would be a smaller, less important city.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Doady

With global warming, more and more people will be looking to northward, especially to Canada. And when the USA's inevitable invasion and annexation of Canada happens, then Vancouver would no longer be so isolated, and that might give a chance to become a megacity. Annexation would also help to bring down the housing costs since development would no longer be constrained by the US border.

You have this weird fantasy of USA invading Canada. We've been friends for 208 years since the War of 1812 ended

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Wigs

We've been friends for 208 years since the War of 1812 ended

Mostly, yes.

With some oddball skirmishes here and there, like the Fenian Raids in the 1860s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids

[MolsonExport]

CN? Isn't that the two letter shorthand for China?

CA is for Canada.

Although Vancouver does have a large Chinese population.


And there just ain't enough room for Vancouver to easily become a Mega city, not without carpeting the Fraser Valley with ultra dense Hong-Kong style development.

[ChiSoxRox]

Originally Posted by someone123

An interesting example is Turkey which inherited an ancient imperial city with a unique geographical advantage.

Buenos Aires is arguably oversized.

Germany is a fairly big country without any really big city.

Buenos Aires is a fascinating tale of growth and stagnation.

In the first half of the 20th century, BA is one of the ten largest metros on Earth, and Argentina was one of the wealthiest countries per capita. With Argentina's vast mineral and agricultural resources and the waves of immigration, seems like BA could have been the southern mirror to NYC in the Western Hemisphere if Argentina could have avoided the corruption and inflation. Or was Sao Paulo destined to surpass it from Brazil's sheer population?

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Mostly, yes.

With some oddball skirmishes here and there, like the Fenian Raids in the 1860s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids

Buncha drunk Irish with delusions
part of my ancestry

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by SnowFire

It would be smaller. Its a border city drawing in money from overseas. If it was in the us it would not come or go to Seattle.

Honestly this is true of basically any major city. If the US had completed its manifest density in the 19th century and annexed Canada at some point, it would likely be a fraction of its current population. Maybe half as many people, if that even.

[SFBruin]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

CN? Isn't that the two letter shorthand for China?

CA is for Canada.

Honestly, I have no idea.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Honestly, I have no idea.

Molson is correct but I find that CA isn't ideal as it easily gets mixed up with California.

Ideally it would be CAN which is more intuitive. There isn't a good two-letter abbreviation for Canada, to be honest.

Some Americans will also mix up the abbreviation for Quebec, and use QB. Whereas the correct one is QC. (And the old one also works: PQ, for Province of Quebec.)

[SnowFire]

anyone who does code knows ca for canada and cn for china.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SnowFire

anyone who does code knows ca for canada and cn for china.

Of course there is the Internet abbreviation.