Photo: Northwest · CC BY-SA 4.0The nearest public library to Royal Oak is Mcgill, 2 km away
The library figures on this page are Burnaby’s: Burnaby Public Library serves all 299,682 people of the city, Royal Oak among them. In 2025 it logged 5.1 visits for every person it serves. The figures come from British Columbia’s public library statistics for 2025, as the library filed them.
BCivic life#156 of 254 in British ColumbiaBehind Royal Oak’s civic life grade
With a B, Royal Oak ranks #156 of 254 British Columbia towns on civic life. A civic life grade combines library visits per resident, registered charities per 1,000 residents and the province’s volunteering rate, and all three exist for Royal Oak.
Informal groups and mutual aid go uncounted.
Sources: provincial statistics, the CRA, Statistics Canada.
365 registered charities give a Burnaby mailing address
There is no count for Royal Oak on its own: the charities are those of all of Burnaby. It works out to 1.2 per 1,000 residents, where the typical British Columbia town has 1.2 and Canada’s 1.4. Counting by mailing address favors a service town, where the surrounding area’s charities get their mail, over the suburbs and countryside around it.
36.9%
The 2023 survey gives British Columbia one volunteering rate for all its towns, 36.9% (between 35.2% and 38.7%), while provinces run from 25.2% at the low end to 40.3%.
Statistics Canada, table 45-10-0039.
Ahead of most of British Columbia’s town libraries on all 2 measures
Per person served, against the 32 town libraries in British Columbia’s 2025 statistics.
Town libraries only; regional systems left out.
About 4,225 visits a day
Everything counted at Burnaby Public Library in 2025: visits, loans and cards.
The nearest library is 2 km from Royal Oak
Sorted by straight-line distance from the centre of Royal Oak.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Library locations. The points are public libraries only, drawn from OpenStreetMap and from Statistics Canada’s list of cultural facilities (2020).
Questions about the library and civic life in Royal Oak
Does Royal Oak have a public library?
Not within Royal Oak itself: the closest is Mcgill, in Edmonds.
How busy is Burnaby Public Library?
It counted 1,541,976 in-person visits in 2025.
Library statistics: BC Public Libraries Statistics, 2025. Library locations: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and Statistics Canada, Open Database of Cultural and Art Facilities (2020). Charities: Canada Revenue Agency, List of charities (2024), charitable organizations only.
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).