economic fabric
What is Vancouver made of?
news coverage + 3×registered companies + 2×mapped places, log-scaled vs strongest sector
momentum
What the city turned toward · Jan–Apr 2026
Each topic's share of news attention, January–April 2026 against September–December 2025 — news ingestion paused in May, so this is the latest complete window.
Governance
11 → 37 news reports
▲85%
Policing Law Enforcement
33 → 39 news reports
▼35%
Crime
62 → 104 news reports
▼8%
Accidents
19 → 32 news reports
▼8%
a rising share means the city's attention is turning toward it — not necessarily more incidents
top city themes
What Vancouver's news is about
Themes across the city's entire news coverage — ≈202.8K located reports — with each theme's momentum, its most specific keywords, and how the coverage feels. A CRITICAL badge means most of that theme's coverage is extremely negative.
Business
▲1.6% growing
Diamond Drilling · Directional Drilling · Auger Drilling · Drill Testing
93% positive coverage
Finance
▼7.6% declining
Initial Public Offering · Diamond Drilling · Public Offering · Gold Futures Trends
93% positive coverage
Mining
▼8.7% declining
Diamond Drilling · Directional Drilling · Auger Drilling · Drill Testing
98% positive coverage
Sports
▲66.2% growing
Nhl Point Totals · World Cup of Hockey · Hockey Superstitions · Euro Hockey Tour
71% positive coverage
Technology
▲15.5% growing
Diamond Drilling · Directional Drilling · Drill Testing · Renewable H2
97% positive coverage
Environment
▼6.4% declining
Diamond Drilling · Roasting Gold Ore · Directional Drilling · Auger Drilling
87% positive coverage
Financial News
▼5.5% declining
Financial Report · Initial Public Offering · Dividend Declaration · Special Dividend
93% positive coverage
Politics
▲250.0% growing
Extradition Treaties · Tariff Negotiations · Shelter Drug Policies · Mail Ballot Fraud
82% negative coverage
Energy
▼34.2% declining
Exploration Drilling · Deepwater Drilling · Cross-country Pipelines · Diamond Drilling
92% positive coverage
momentum window: Jan–Apr 2026 vs Sep–Dec 2025 · sentiment is a property of the news coverage, not a city rating
city signals
The character of Vancouver
- ✓Knowledge-city heavyweight— UBC and Simon Fraser dominate local research production.
- ✓Software on the street— Software companies lead the mapped business mix.
- ✓Institutional hiring anchor— UBC and Royal Bank top recruiter demand.
- ✓Broad commercial economy— Mining, software, finance and marketing all have depth.
- ✓Startup factory, funding gap— Recent formation is high; unfunded ventures remain the largest stage.
- ✓Public-investment magnet— Transport, housing and industry lead government commitments.
- ✓Health research depth— Children’s and women’s health lead research opportunities.
- ✓Weak industrial backbone— Manufacturing adjacency is limited and infrastructure attention is falling.
everyday life
Living in Vancouver means…
- ✓sharing space with universities— UBC leads both research output and recruiter demand.
- ✓watching road safety closely— Accidents gained sharply in the civic news mix.
- ✓seeing software everywhere— Software companies dominate mapped local businesses.
- ✓feeling public investment nearby— Transport and housing dominate city-directed announcements.
- ✓living with climate memory— The 2021 heat wave was the deadliest listed event.
- ✓finding an uneven startup ladder— Formation is strong, but unfunded companies dominate.
read from the news record — not a survey
hidden depth
Things most people don't know
- The University of British Columbia accounts for 13705 of the 17639 locally attributed papers in the available research data.
- Research about Vancouver ranges from Canadian identity and HIV interventions to mycorrhizal fungi and orthopaedic implants.
- The mapped street economy contains 125 software companies, far more than any other named business kind.
- Among the listed deadly events, a 2021 heat wave has the highest estimated toll: 65–134 deaths.
- In April 2026, Xero announced a new North America Product & Tech Hub in Vancouver.