Photo: Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0West End’s public library is VPL: Joe Fortes Branch
Vancouver Public Library serves the whole of Vancouver, so the library figures on this page are the city’s: 742,394 people, West End among them. In 2025 it logged 6.5 visits for every person it serves. These 2025 figures are what the library reported to British Columbia’s public library statistics.
A−Civic life#34 of 254 in British ColumbiaWest End’s civic life grade, input by input
With a A−, West End ranks #34 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 West End.
Informal groups and mutual aid go uncounted.
Sources: provincial statistics, the CRA, Statistics Canada.
1,798 registered charities give a Vancouver mailing address
There is no count for West End on its own: the charities are those of all of Vancouver. It works out to 2.4 per 1,000 residents, where the typical British Columbia town has 1.2 and Canada’s 1.4. The CRA files each charity under its mailing address, so a service town collects its region’s charities and a suburb or rural municipality few.
36.9%
Formal volunteering is measured only for the province: 36.9% of British Columbia’s people in 2023, give or take (35.2% to 38.7%), with the provinces between 25.2% and 40.3%.
Statistics Canada, table 45-10-0039.
Ahead of most of British Columbia’s town libraries on all 2 measures
Each figure is per person served, set against 32 town libraries in British Columbia’s statistics for 2025.
Town libraries only; regional systems left out.
About 13,208 visits a day
Everything counted at Vancouver Public Library in 2025: visits, loans and cards.
West End’s public library
Closest first, each distance a straight line from the centre of West End.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Visits count everyone. A library’s visits include people from neighbouring towns and visitors; the statistics don’t say how many come from West End itself.
Questions about the library and civic life in West End
Does West End have a public library?
Yes: VPL: Joe Fortes Branch.
How busy is Vancouver Public Library?
It counted 4,820,937 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).