Many places, buildings, and institutions associated with Victoria (the University of Victoria, Victoria International Airport, or the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal, for example), actually exist outside the City of Victoria. The confusion is enhanced by the fact that Victoria is the locality indicated in the mailing addresses of places in several CRD municipalities and localities outside Victoria.
The "core" munipalities: The City of Victoria and the District Municipalities of Saanich, Esquimalt, and Oak Bay, which are immediately adjacent to it;
The Greater Victoria region has a combined population of almost 312,000, according to the 2001 Canadian census [link]. The region comprises two of the fifteen most populous municipalities in British Columbia (Saanich, at number seven, and Victoria at number thirteen). The population of the municipalities and unincorporated districts are as follows:
In comparison to the Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), the region does not enjoy a great deal of ethnic diversity. Most of the population remains of European descent. A substantial community of those of Chinese descent has existed in Greater Victoria since the latter nineteenth century, the first significant influx coming with the building of the transcontinental railway in the 1880s. There is also a substantial First Nations (indigenous) population whose ancestors have lived in the area for thousands of years. Numerous First Nations reserves, forming distinct communities, exist in the region — primarily on the Saanich Peninsula, in Esquimalt, and in the Western Communities — although the majority of the First Nations population live off-reserve.
The largest ethnic groups in Greater Victoria, according to the 2001 census, are:
Chinatown | Cook Street Village | East Burnside-Gorge | Fairfield | Fernwood | Harris Green | Hillside | Humboldt Valley | James Bay | Jubilee | North Park | Rockland | Victoria West
Beaver Lake-Elk Lake | Broadmead-Sunnymead | Cadboro Bay | Cedar Hill | Cloverdale | Cordova Bay | Glanford | Gordon Head | Gorge-Tillicum | Interurban | Lake Hill | Maplewood | Marigold | Mount Douglas | Mount Tolmie-Lansdowne | Prospect Lake | Royal Oak | Strawberry Vale | Swan Lake | Ten Mile Point | Town and Country-Burnside | West Saanich
Belmont Park | Brentwood Bay | Broom Hill | Cloak Hill | Colwood Corners | Craigflower | Dean Park | Deep Cove | Durrance Lake | East Sooke | Florence Lake | Glen Lake | Goldstream | Gonzales | Gorge Vale | Happy Valley | Hatley Park | Island View | Kemp Lake | Lands End | Luxton | Matheson Lake | Mill Hill | Millstream | Otter Point | Pat Bay | Ravenwood | Rockheights | Rocky Point | Royal Roads | Saanichton | Saseenos | Songhees | Swartz Bay | Thetis Lake | Uplands | Whiffen Spit | William Head | Willis Point | Willows Beach | Windsor Park | Work Point
