Fun facts about Victoria

A few fun facts and figures about Victoria:

• With a perfect growing climate, Victoria is known as Canada's Garden City.
• The city has an annual flower count dating back to the 1970s. The total blooms counted in 2022 was 27,875,292,158!
• Victoria’s Chinatown was the first in Canada (founded in 1858) and Fan Tan Alley is the narrowest street in Canada.
• Friendly is an understatement: Victoria has been named one of the top 10 Friendliest Cities in the World by Condé Nast.
• Other accolades include: Canada’s Best City to Live in as a Single Woman (by HGTV), and both the Third Best City and Second Best Small City in the world (by international travel and tourism magazine, Condé Nast).
• Bright lights, beautiful city: As the provincial capital, the Parliament buildings have approximately 3,300 energy efficient lights and roughly 1,600 lampposts across the city hold hanging flower baskets every Summer.
• Victoria was named the most bikeable city in Canada (Redfin), with hundreds of kilometres of cycle paths, bike lanes and routes in the city, including the incomparable Galloping Goose Regional Trail.
• Strong support for all things local: Vancouver Island has over 2,800 farms, with nearly 1,000 in the Greater Victoria Region and 700 in the Cowichan Valley.
• The world’s tallest free-standing totem pole is in Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park.
• National Geographic recognizes Vancouver Island as one of the best cold-water diving destinations on earth and the renowned Jacques Cousteau Society rates the area second only to the Red Sea for diversity of marine life and water clarity.
• Victoria’s waters are home to three resident pods of orca (killer) whales totaling just over 80 whales.
• The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has one of the most important, and second largest, Asian art collections in Canada.
• Number of annual visitors to the internationally-renown Butchart Gardens, a National Historic Site of Canada? Over one million.
• The Royal BC Museum, founded in 1886, is one of Canada's greatest cultural treasures.