Photo: https://www.flickr.com/people/sillygwailo/ - sillygwailo / Richard Eriksson · CC BY 2.0Household incomes in Heights are higher than in 79% of Canadian towns
Residents of Heights take 29.6 minutes to reach work on average; the middle of Canadian towns is 26. Public transit carries 17% of its commuters. In Heights, 75% of residents aged 15 to 64 were working in May 2021; the middle of Canadian towns is 73%.
What sets Heights apart on jobs and income
Work near the middle
In work at the 2021 census: 75% of people aged 15 to 64, against 73% in the middle of Canadian towns, and 59% of everyone 15 and over. In work ↓
Longer trips than most towns
The average trip to work is 29.6 minutes; the middle of Canadian towns is 26. Getting to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, its commuting tables, Employment Insurance and the Labour Force Survey.
Jobs & income in Heights: graded B−
Better than 45% of Canadian towns on three measures together, #152 of 254 in British Columbia.
Its strongest measure is household income; its weakest, trip times.
Graded against Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more; less unemployment and a shorter commute count in its favour.
How the grade works
Census 2021 measures, weighed equally against every Canadian town and neighbourhood of 2,500 people or more: the share of residents aged 15 to 64 in work, median household income (2020), the unemployment rate and the average commute. Each becomes a percentile; their average sets the letter.
Heights gets to work without a car for 22% of commuters
Working at home: 29% here, 21% in the middle of Canadian towns.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
How residents who commute got to work, 2021 Census; working at home is counted apart.
Work and the working-age population of Heights
Of the 95 other places of 2,500 people or more in the Greater Vancouver census division, 58 have a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Working or looking, 64% of everyone 15 and over was in the labour force. Take in all adults, retirees with them, and only 59% were working. The monthly Labour Force Survey, which covers the wider area, put its employment rate at 63% in October 2026. The census caught the labour market on 11 May 2021, deep in the pandemic, so unemployment and working from home both ran above normal.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: people in work of any age over residents aged 15 to 64, and the census unemployment rate (15 and over); the 25-to-54 rate is Statistics Canada’s own (98-10-0485). The Labour Force Survey and business counts are context, not grade inputs.
$93,800 a year: the median household in Heights
Heights’ median is 8% above the middle of British Columbia’s towns ($86,900). 51 of the 95 other places of 2,500+ in the Greater Vancouver census division have a higher median. Pandemic support paid in 2020, CERB first among it, is part of these before-tax incomes.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
In the Greater Vancouver census division, 63% more people receive EI than in 2019
Set against the same month a year before, the count in August 2026 rose by 4%. The count topped out in January 2021 at 117,570 people, 3.3 times the 2019 average. That works out to around 3.6 beneficiaries per 100 people aged 15 to 64 across the division.
Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance beneficiaries by census division (14-10-0323): all income benefits, not seasonally adjusted. Data for EI beneficiaries covers the Greater Vancouver census division. EI counts are context, not part of any grade.
People receiving Employment Insurance each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
The walkability of Heights: A+
Better than almost every Canadian town on two measures together, #31 of 254 in British Columbia.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
Ranked on jobs and income, Heights is 172nd among 391 Canadian towns of 15,500 to 29,900
| # | Place | People | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yellowknife Northwest Territories | 22,858 | 80% | 5.8% | $148K | A+ |
| 2 | Central Saanich British Columbia | 18,184 | 85% | 4.9% | $103K | A+ |
| 3 | Cap-Rouge Quebec | 17,139 | 81% | 4.3% | $126K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 5 | Oak Bay British Columbia | 18,626 | 80% | 7% | $108K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 11 | Fort St. John British Columbia | 24,383 | 76% | 8.9% | $102K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 170 | Maple Ontario | 20,122 | 71% | 13% | $125K | B− |
| 171 | Loyalist Ontario | 19,761 | 68% | 9.7% | $94K | B− |
| 172 | Heights British Columbia | 22,141 | 75% | 8.4% | $94K | B− |
| 173 | Highland Ontario | 19,963 | 66% | 13% | $80K | B− |
| 174 | Parc-Jarry Quebec | 15,699 | 81% | 6.9% | $77K | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 391 | Parc-Extension Quebec | 29,066 | 61% | 16% | $48K | D− |
Ordered by Jobs & income Grade: the top three, the places either side of Heights, and others among British Columbia’s towns.
Heights and its neighbours: work and income
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heights | 75% | 8.4% | $94K | 29.6 min | B− | A+ |
| Brentwood 1.8 km | 79% | 8.2% | $85K | 29.6 min | B− | A+ |
| Holdom 2.4 km | 70% | 9.4% | $97K | 29.4 min | C+ | A+ |
| Hastings-Sunrise 2.7 km | 73% | 9.6% | $86K | 29.8 min | C | A+ |
| Lochdale 3.2 km | 67% | 10% | $86K | 32.5 min | C− | A+ |
| Broadview 3.5 km | 73% | 10% | $93K | 29.3 min | C+ | A+ |
| Burrard Inlet 3 3.6 km | 84% | 8.5% | $101K | 29 min | A− | B− |
The people of each place: the share in work, unemployment, household income and the average commute, with both grades once they come.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Heights, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- The Labour Force Survey. Monthly, and only for metro areas and economic regions. It is the up-to-date rate we set beside the census’s 2021 snapshot.
- In work. We divide the number of employed residents by the number aged 15 to 64. Workers past 64 still count on top, because the 2021 Census crosses work with age only for whole municipalities; in return, a retirement town’s pensioners don’t drag the rate down.
- Unemployment. It counts only people who wanted work and had none in May 2021, as a share of those working or searching; students and retirees who weren’t looking stay out of both sides.
- Household income. Half of households had more than this before tax in 2020, half less, counting every source of income. For a neighbourhood we estimate the median from the income brackets of its dissemination areas.
- Trip times. The census asks how long the trip to work usually takes, in bands; our average uses each band’s middle, so it runs a little above Statistics Canada’s timed average.
- Employment Insurance. Beneficiaries of Employment Insurance, month by month, for the census division rather than the town. Many jobless people don’t qualify, so it isn’t an unemployment rate.
- Which towns we compare. Medians over towns and neighbourhoods of at least 2,500 residents. Whole cities would swamp them and reserves sit outside the rankings, so neither is in.
- Neighbourhood figures. Everything here sums the dissemination areas inside Heights’ lines, since the census has no neighbourhood profile; where people commute is on Burnaby’s page.
Questions about work in Heights
How many jobs are there in Heights?
Jobs are counted by municipality, not neighbourhood: the page for Burnaby has the jobs based there and where its commuters go.
What is the unemployment rate in Heights?
On census day in May 2021, unemployment stood at 8.4% of the labour force (9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns). For a recent figure, the Labour Force Survey put the Vancouver metro area at 6.7% in October 2026.
What is the average household income in Heights?
The median household in Heights had $93,800 before tax in 2020, against $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns.
How do people in Heights get to work?
75% of commuters drive, 17% take public transit, 3.6% walk and 1% cycle; 29% of everyone in work worked at home on census day.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (Census Profile) · Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0323 (EI beneficiaries) · Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (14-10-0459, 14-10-0462) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Counts (33-10-1176) · grades: TownRatings. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).