The beginnings of the modern city, which was originally named Gastown, grew around the site of a makeshift tavern on the western edges of Hastings Mill that was built on July 1, 1867, and owned by proprietor Gassy Jack.

The city's large natural seaport on the Pacific Ocean became a vital link in the trade between Asia-Pacific, East Asia, Europe, and Eastern Canada.

[35][36] The Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh (Burrard) peoples of the Coast Salish group[37][38][39] had villages in various parts of present-day Vancouver, such as Stanley Park, False Creek, Kitsilano, Point Grey and near the mouth of the Fraser River.

While some manufacturing did develop, including the establishment of the British Columbia Sugar Refinery by Benjamin Tingley Rogers in 1890,[53] natural resources became the basis for Vancouver's economy.

[56]: 71–74  Following a lull in the 1920s, the strike wave peaked in 1935 when unemployed men flooded the city to protest conditions in the relief camps run by the military in remote areas throughout the province.

The largest trees in Vancouver's old-growth forest were in the Gastown area, where the first logging occurred and on the southern slopes of False Creek and English Bay, especially around Jericho Beach.

[112] In 2006, the city launched a planning initiative entitled EcoDensity, with the stated goal of exploring ways in which "density, design, and land use can contribute to environmental sustainability, affordability, and livability".

The original BC Hydro headquarters building (designed by Ron Thom and Ned Pratt) at Nelson and Burrard Streets is a modernist high-rise, now converted into the Electra condominium.

Two modern buildings that define the southern skyline away from the downtown area are City Hall and the Centennial Pavilion of Vancouver General Hospital, both designed by Townley and Matheson in 1936 and 1958, respectively.

[123] People of English, Scottish, and Irish origins were historically the largest ethnic groups in the city,[124] and elements of British society and culture are still visible in some areas, particularly South Granville and Kerrisdale.

Germans are the next-largest European ethnic group in Vancouver and were a leading force in the city's society and economy until the rise of anti-German sentiment with the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

[14] Today Chinese are the largest visible ethnic group in Vancouver; the city has a diverse Chinese-speaking community with speakers of several dialects, notably Cantonese and Mandarin.

[131][132][133] Other Asian-origin groups that reside in Vancouver include Filipinos (5.9%), Japanese (1.7%), Korean (1.7%), West Asians (1.9%), as well as sizable communities of Vietnamese, Indonesians, and Cambodians.

[140] Prior to the Hong Kong diaspora of the 1990s, the largest non-British ethnic groups in the city were Irish and German, followed by Scandinavian, Italian, Ukrainian, Chinese, and Punjabi.

[151] With its location on the Pacific Rim and at the western terminus of Canada's transcontinental highway and rail routes, Vancouver is one of the nation's largest industrial centres.

[155] Conversely, since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, multiple media organizations and economists have continued to warn of a severe long-term economic doom loop impending for Vancouver, similar to the decline noted in San Francisco, California.

[164] Since the 1990s, the development of high-rise condominiums in the downtown peninsula has been financed, in part, by an inflow of capital from Hong Kong immigrants due to the former colony's 1997 handover to China.

Subsequently, North America's only legal safe injection site at the time, Insite, was opened for the significant number of intravenous heroin users in the city.

While each member of Metro Vancouver has its own separate local governing body, Metro Vancouver oversees standard services and planning functions within the area, such as providing drinking water; operating sewage and solid waste handling; maintaining regional parks; managing air quality, greenhouse gases and ecological health; and providing a strategy for regional growth and land use.

[183] In 2000, the Vancouver Police Department established a specialized drug squad, "Growbusters", to carry out an aggressive campaign against the city's estimated 4,000 hydroponic marijuana growing operations (or grow-ops) in residential areas.

Vancouver plays host to special events, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, the Clinton-Yeltsin Summit, and the Symphony of Fire fireworks show that require significant policing.

These are augmented by private and vocational institutions and other colleges in the surrounding areas of Metro Vancouver that provide career, trade, technical, and university-transfer programs.

[217] The Scotiabank Dance Centre, a converted bank building on the corner of Davie and Granville, functions as a gathering place and performance venue for Vancouver-based dancers and choreographers.

Genie Award-winning filmmaker Mina Shum has filmed and set several of her internationally released features in Vancouver, including the Sundance-screened Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity (2002).

Television shows produced[221] (but not set) in Vancouver (that have been produced by American and Canadian studios alike) include 21 Jump Street, The 100, The 4400, Airwolf, Almost Human, Arrow, Backstrom, Caprica, Cedar Cove, Chesapeake Shores, The Commish, Dark Angel, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, The Flash, The Good Doctor, Haters Back Off, Hellcats, Intelligence, iZombie, The Killing, The L Word, Life Unexpected, The Man in the High Castle, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Once Upon a Time, Psych, Reaper, Riverdale, Rogue, Smallville, Stargate SG-1, Supergirl, Supernatural, The Tomorrow People, The Magicians, Tru Calling, Van Helsing, Wild Cards, Witches of East End, and The X-Files.

[227] When alternative rock became popular in the 1990s, several Vancouver groups rose to prominence, including 54-40, Odds, Moist, the Matthew Good Band, Sons of Freedom and Econoline Crush.

Other popular musical artists who made their mark from Vancouver include Carly Rae Jepsen, Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Heart, Prism, Trooper, Chilliwack, Payolas, Moev, Images in Vogue, Michael Bublé, Stef Lang and Spirit of the West.

The Granville Entertainment District has the city's highest concentration of bars and nightclubs with closing times of 3 am, in addition to various after-hours clubs open until late morning on weekends.

Nicknamed Hollywood North, a distinction it shares with Toronto,[229][230][231] the city has been used as a film making location for nearly a century, beginning with the Edison Manufacturing Company.

A number of the city's biggest tourist attractions – such as English Bay, Stanley Park, the Vancouver Aquarium, the Museum of Anthropology, and the Kitsilano neighbourhood – are not connected by this rapid transit system.