Photo: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner from Wellington, New Zealand · CC BY-SA 2.0Vancouver has one of Canada’s highest earthquake risks: $0.43 a year per $1,000, 14 times the typical town’s
Fire seldom reaches Vancouver: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.004% a year). Radon is lower than usual: 1.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town.
What stands out about Vancouver’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Vancouver: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Vancouver faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
No Hazard risk grade for Vancouver yet
Two inputs always count for Vancouver, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Vancouver: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Past fire around Vancouver’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Vancouver’s 0.004% is in the low band.
Within 5 km of Vancouver, 5.6% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 43%.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in British Columbia · highest of 256
Vancouver ranks 144th of the 256 towns in British Columbia for burn rate (0.004% a year), in the lower half; Oliver leads at 0.98%.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Vancouver stays low, with 92%.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
Vancouver is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by City of Vancouver
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Vancouver: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
City of Vancouver holds the flood mapping that covers Vancouver (2014), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Vancouver Coastal Flood Risk Assessment | City of Vancouver | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Vancouver with 76% of towns in British Columbia; Canada’s share is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Vancouver to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Vancouver: $0.43 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.43 per $1,000, Vancouver carries roughly 14.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Vancouver at $0.43 beside a median in British Columbia of $0.36, with Duncan on top at $1.33.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Only 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Vancouver.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
The loss is to Vancouver’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Vancouver: 1.2% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
A lower share than most: 1.2% of tested homes around Vancouver, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Vancouver (1.2%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Vancouver is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Vancouver only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Vancouver health region
Weather and fire alerts for Vancouver
Alerts for Vancouver come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Fire danger and active fires near Vancouver are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Vancouver
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Riley Park 23,682 · 0.8 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
| Mount Pleasant 37,091 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| South Cambie 9,846 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
| Little Saigon 11,086 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Fairview 33,969 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | Yes |
| Shaughnessy 8,034 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.43 | 1.2% | None listed |
South Cambie burns a little more than Vancouver, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Vancouver faces
What to do about the hazards Vancouver faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Vancouver sits in.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Vancouver floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Vancouver’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Vancouver’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Vancouver
Is Vancouver at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Vancouver has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Is radon a problem in Vancouver?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.2% of 83 homes tested in Vancouver’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Vancouver flood?
Vancouver’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How is Vancouver’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
The grade is still to come for Vancouver, and it will weigh seismic risk and radon, with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Vancouver?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Vancouver $0.43 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. 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).