People of British Columbia

• B.C.'s population was 4.6 million people as of October 1, 2010.
• British Columbia is home to people of many different origins, cultural traditions, languages, ethnicities and religions.
• B.C.'s aboriginal people are known as First Nations. There are 197 First Nations bands in the province, such as the Gitxsan, Haida, Nisga'a and Squamish.
• The top 10 mother tongue languages spoken in B.C. are (according to the 2006 Census): English, Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin), Punjabi, German, French, Tagalog, Spanish, Italian, Korean and Persian.
• Since 2005, more than 255,000 immigrants have settled in B.C., a yearly average of 42,500 people.