New StatsCan census data shows a slow but steady rise in the immigrant population in the Tri-Cities, outpacing the rate province-wide and in the rest of Canada.
The data shows that as of 2015, there are 61,060 foreign-born residents in Coquitlam, making up 44.2% of the overall population.
In Port Coquitlam, there are 18,430 immigrants, making up 31.8% of all residents.
And Port Moody has 10,755 foreign-born people, representing 32.2% of the city’s population.
The percentages outpaced B.C.’s, which has 1.3 million immigrants making up 28.3% of the overall population; and Canada’s, for which 21.9% of the population are foreign-born residents.
In Coquitlam, the majority of the 9,530 newcomers between 2011 and 2016 came from China (24.9%) while Iran was second (16.9%) and South Korea was third (15.6). The Philippines was fourth at 7.2% and Syria fifth at 2.9%.
The countries of origin were similar in PoCo, which saw 1,935 people immigrate to the municipality since 2011.
Of that total, 20.7% of foreign-born residents have come from the Philippines while 11.9% came from South Korea and 10.1% came China. Immigrants from Iran and india each made up 8% of the total.
Port Moody saw 1,220 newcomers move to the city since 2011, with people from China making up 23% of the total and South Koreans making up 13.1%. Iranians made up 12.7%, Americans made up 9% and people from the Philippines made up 5.7%.
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