About Richmond

Richmond is a city in British Columbia, Canada, and the site of Vancouver International Airport. Known for its Asian influences, it’s home to the International Buddhist Temple, an elaborate complex resembling Beijing’s Forbidden City. Asian eateries and shops cluster in the Golden Village district. In the village of Steveston, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery has interactive exhibits on the local salmon-canning tradition.


Richmond is the location of Vancouver International Airport. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Richmond was the site for the long track speed skating events.

As of 2016, it has an estimated population of 198,309 people with 60% being immigrants, the highest proportion of immigrants in Canada. Richmond has over 50% of residents identifying as Chinese, making it the city in North America with the largest proportion of Asians. More than half of its population is of Asian descent, many of whom immigrated in the late 1980s, mostly from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. Other Asian Canadians in Richmond include Indo-Canadians, Filipino Canadians and Japanese Canadians.

Richmond's Japanese community has a long history in Steveston dating back to the 1800s. Following Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, this community was devastated as residents of Japanese descent were relocated to internment camps in the BC Interior and Alberta and their property sold at auction.

Richmond is also home to two of the largest Buddhist temples in North America, the International Buddhist Temple and the Ling Yen Mountain Temple.

The average price of a detached home in Richmond is $1,413,500 (as of March 2016).

Richmond is located on Lulu Island at the mouth of the Fraser River. It encompasses adjacent Sea Island and some smaller uninhabited islets to the north and south. Neighbouring communities are Vancouver and Burnaby to the north, New Westminster to the east, and Delta to the south. The Strait of Georgia forms its western border.

Richmond is home to a campus of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Sprott Shaw College and Trinity Western University. The British Columbia Institute of Technology also runs an aerospace technology campus in Sea Island near Vancouver International Airport.

Official City of Richmond website: https://www.richmond.ca/home.htm