British Columbia Interior
The British Columbia Interior, popularly referred to as the BC Interior or simply the Interior, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. While the exact boundaries are variously defined, the British Columbia Interior is generally defined to include the 14 regional districts that do not have coastline along the Pacific Ocean or Salish Sea, and are not part of the Lower Mainland. Other boundaries may exclude parts of or even entire regional districts, or expand the definition to include the regional districts of Fraser Valley, Squamish–Lillooet, and Kitimat–Stikine.
British Columbia Interior
French: Intérieur de la Colombie-Britannique | |
|---|---|
Region of British Columbia | |
From top, left to right: Kelowna, CN train traversing Fraser Canyon near Ashcroft, Prince George, Hudson Bay Mountain, Nelson Bridge in Central Kootenay | |
| Nickname: "The Interior" | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | British Columbia |
| Principal cities | List
|
| Area | |
| • 14 Districts | 669,648 km2 (258,553 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation Mt. Fairweather | 4,671 m (15,325 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 127 m (417 ft) |
| Population (2016) | 961,155 |
| • Density | 7.41/km2 (19.2/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC−08:00 (PST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−07:00 (PDT) |
| Postal code prefixes | V |
| Area codes | 236, 250, 672, 778 |
Home to just under 1 million people, the British Columbia Interior's 14 regional districts contain many cities, towns, airports, and associated regional, provincial, and national parks connected by the province's highway and railway network. The region is known for the complexity of its landforms, the result of millions of years of tectonic plate movements. The ecology of the region is dominated by temperate coniferous forest with patches of alpine tundra found atop its numerous mountain ranges.