Homes in the District of North Vancouver generally range from mid-sized family bungalows to very large luxury houses.

It is served by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, British Columbia Ambulance Service, and the District of North Vancouver Fire Department.

For thousands of years, the Indigenous Squamish and their kin Tsleil-Waututh, of the Coast Salish, resided in the land known as North Vancouver.

Near where the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool grain elevators now stand, the town of Moodyville grew up and stood as the main centre of activity on the North Shore until the mill closed in 1901.

The second, Central School, opened in 1902 in a building that still stands as part of what is now Presentation House at 3rd Street and Chesterfield Avenue, the current home of the North Vancouver Museum and Archives.

In the early years of the 20th century, a real estate boom took place, with speculators – including the British poet Rudyard Kipling – eager to turn a quick dollar.

Industry, particularly shipbuilding, became central, with the nearby stands of trees a rich resource for a society in which ships, houses, and most other manmade things were constructed mainly of wood.

Over the years, this company, later known as Burrard Dry Dock and then Versatile Pacific Shipyards, became a major force in the local economy.

While the Pacific Great Eastern Railway inaugurated a 12.7-mile run from North Vancouver to Whytecliff Park in 1914, it was not until the completion of the first Second Narrows Bridge in 1925 that rail and road links with the Lower Mainland supplemented the local ferry service.

The depression that began in 1929, coupled with disruptions to communications over the Second Narrows caused by ships colliding with the bridge, led to economic difficulties and severe tax shortfalls.

The district is bounded by the Capilano River to the west, Indian Arm to the east, Burrard Inlet to the south, and the Coast Mountains to the north.

These include (from west to east): Edgemont Village, Upper Lonsdale, Lynn Valley, Main Street, Parkgate, and Deep Cove.

While industry was the engine that propelled North Vancouver for much of the twentieth century, this has now largely been replaced by enterprises more in tune with present economic realities.

Filming of the television series The X-Files took place in North Vancouver for five seasons, with many of its "wilderness" sequences shot in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (LSCR).