Every local area in Vancouver
The City of Vancouver divides itself into 22 official local areas, and the division that actually organizes the city is Ontario Street: West Side prices and East Side prices are different markets that happen to share a downtown. This is a guide to the city one local area at a time — all 22 of them, filterable by side of the city below.
Browse dedicated guides for Downtown, West Side, East Side, South Vancouver.
22 communities across the city
Every local area on the site, from the 1880s townsite neighbourhoods to the post-war south slope. Filter by side of the city, then page through the rest.
Arbutus Ridge
Quiet 1920s-to-1950s streets on the ridge between Kitsilano and Kerrisdale, with the Arbutus Greenway running its length.
Downtown
The peninsula core — Yaletown, Coal Harbour, Gastown and the business district stacked into a few walkable square kilometres.
Dunbar-Southlands
Detached-house Vancouver at its leafiest, running from 16th Avenue down to the Fraser flats and the Pacific Spirit trails.
Fairview
The slope between False Creek and Broadway, with VGH at its centre, Granville Island at its foot and a subway being dug underneath.
Grandview-Woodland
Commercial Drive's neighbourhood — Italian espresso bars, a century of protest history and East Van's best-kept Edwardian houses.
Hastings-Sunrise
The port-side east end around the PNE, with a mountain view down every north-south street.
Kensington-Cedar Cottage
Kingsway cuts it on the diagonal: hilly, multilingual and one of the city's more attainable detached-house areas.
Kerrisdale
West Side establishment — 41st Avenue shops, mature boulevards and a community centre that anchors half the area's week.
Killarney
The 1950s southeast corner, with big parks inland and the River District rising on its Fraser shoreline.
Kitsilano
Beach, saltwater pool and the Broadway shops — the neighbourhood that set Vancouver's outdoor-first tone.
Marpole
An old streetcar suburb at the Fraser crossing, now the Canada Line's first stop inside the city.
Mount Pleasant
Main Street's craft-brewery blocks meeting Olympic Village — East Van's fastest-changing neighbourhood.
Showing 1–12 of 22 communities
The four sides at a glance
The same 114 square kilometres read very differently depending on the side. Housing stock, price and what a main street looks like all divide along lines the official local-area map only hints at.
| Side | Local areas | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown | Downtown, Strathcona, West End | The peninsula plus its two oldest neighbours — the West End's towers, Strathcona's Victorians and the downtown core between them. |
| West Side | Arbutus Ridge, Dunbar-Southlands, Fairview, Kerrisdale, Kitsilano, Oakridge, Shaughnessy, South Cambie, West Point Grey | West of Ontario Street: the beach neighbourhoods, the garden suburbs and the Cambie Corridor's mid-rise construction zone. |
| East Side | Grandview-Woodland, Hastings-Sunrise, Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Mount Pleasant, Renfrew-Collingwood, Riley Park | East of Ontario Street: Commercial Drive, Main Street, the PNE and the most varied housing stock in the city. |
| South Vancouver | Killarney, Marpole, Sunset, Victoria-Fraserview | The Fraser slope — post-war family neighbourhoods, the Punjabi Market, and the River District growing along the water. |
The local areas are official; the sides are convention. The City of Vancouver publishes the 22 local-area boundaries; the grouping into Downtown, West Side, East Side and South Vancouver is the everyday shorthand residents use, with Ontario Street as the traditional west–east divide.