Lower Mainland

The Lower Mainland is a ceremonial county of the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC), and the third-most populous metropolitan area in Canada. It is the largest of BC's five county areas by population, itself consisting of seven administrative counties, and is more or less coterminous with Metro Vancouver, with Vancouver being the most populous city and urban core of the metropolitan area; however, rural areas outside the urban and suburban landmass of Metro Vancouver are always considered part of the Lower Mainland, which essentially consists of all flat and mildly hilly land starting in the Fraser Valley just east of Chilliwack and heading west to the Fraser River Delta and major urban agglomeration based around the delta and the Burrard Inlet to the north, at the centre of which lies Vancouver, the economic and cultural centre and most populous city of the Lower Mainland, and the third-most populous in Canada.

The seven counties of the Lower Mainland are coterminous with the Lower Mainland Police Area, which is under the jurisdiction of the Lower Mainland Constabulary (LMC). The seven counties together forming the Lower Mainland have a population of approximately 6.78 million, making it the most populous metropolitan area in BC and the third-most populous in Canada, after the Toronto Metropolitan Area and the Montreal Metropolitan Area.