page_title: Sikhism in Canada
section_title: British Columbia
hierarchical_section_title: Sikhism in Canada / By province / British Columbia
caption_attribution_description: English: Multilingual signage at Vancouver International Airport, international arrivals area. Text in English, French, and Chinese is a permanent feature of this sign, while the right panel of the sign is a video screen that rotates through additional languages. (The language shown here is Punjabi. Other language tabs show Japanese and Korean.)
context_page_description: Canadian Sikhs number roughly 500,000 people and account for roughly 1.4% of Canada's population. Canadian Sikhs are often credited for paving the path to Canada for all South Asian immigrants as well as for inadvertently creating the presence of Sikhism in the United States. Sikhism is a world religion with 27 million followers worldwide, with majority of their population in Punjab, India. The Legislative Assembly of Ontario celebrates April as Sikh Heritage Month.
  The largest Sikh populations in Canada are found in British Columbia, followed by Ontario and then Alberta. However, Sikhs can be found in every province and territory within the country. As of the 2011 Census, more than half of Canada's Sikhs can be found in one of four cities: Surrey, Brampton, Calgary, and Abbotsford. British Columbia holds the distinction of being the only province or jurisdiction outside of South Asia with Sikhism as the second most followed religion among the population.
context_section_description: Sikhism is the second largest religion in the Greater Vancouver area where they form 6.8% of the total population.
  In 2001 16,780 persons in the Abbotsford area stated that they were of the Sikh religion. In 2011 28,235 persons in the Abbotsford area stated that they were of the Sikh religion, making up 16.9% of the population. Of all census metropolitan areas in Canada, Abbotsford had the highest Sikh percentage in 2011.
  Gur Sikh Temple is located in Abbotsford. It was the Sikh gurdwara building in North America that is still standing. In 1975 the Khalsa Diwan Society of Abbotsford separated from the parent organization in Vancouver, as the title of the Abbotsford gurdwara was transferred to the separated entity. The Abbotsford Sikhs wanted to have local control over their gurdwara.
  The largest concentration of Sikhs in the Greater Vancouver area is in the City of Surrey in the census agglomeration's southeastern sector, forming 22.6% of the population.  The City of Abbotsford which lies east of the census agglomeration's boundary, has the next-largest concentration of Sikhs in British Columbia, at 13.4% of the population (with 16.3% self-identifying of the total city population as East Indian, and 2.3% as Punjabi).
caption: Gurmukhi language sign board at Vancouver International Airport
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