Richmond is British Columbia's fourth largest city, with a 2024 population estimate of 209,937 residents. It's also a city that punches above its size economically: local businesses generate more than 100,000 jobs, working out to roughly 1.4 jobs for every resident worker, and 37% of the working-age population holds a university degree — above both the provincial and national average.
That economy is anchored by a genuinely diverse set of industries. Aviation and aerospace radiate out from Vancouver International Airport, where more than 23,000 people commute to work on Sea Island every day, supported by the Vancouver Airport Authority and BCIT's Aerospace Technology Campus. Logistics, warehousing and port transloading businesses operate out of industrial areas like Ironwood and Crosspointe Commerce Center, alongside major tenants such as LEGO Group's new 2-million-square-foot distribution centre. Manufacturing, technology and cleantech firms — including General Fusion — sit alongside long-standing employers like London Drugs' head office, and Steveston Harbour, the largest small craft harbour in Canada, keeps more than 500 commercial fishing vessels working out of Steveston Village.
Running a business here comes with a distinct set of pressures. Richmond is one of Canada's most multicultural cities, with residents from 140+ ethnic origins and major multilingual retail districts like Golden Village and Aberdeen Centre along the No. 3 Road corridor — which means an English-only website or ad campaign leaves customers, and revenue, on the table. Much of the city sits on a low-lying river delta, roughly a metre above sea level, protected by 49 km of dikes and 39 pump stations, which puts business continuity and site-access planning on the agenda in a way most cities never have to think about. And with U.S. tariff and trade-policy shifts squeezing import/export-reliant businesses, plus industrial vacancy sitting near 3.4% and average asking net rents around $8.25 per square foot as national tenants absorb capacity, competition for both space and margin is real.
That's the environment EduWeb builds for. We're an AI-first software, web and automation studio, and we work with Richmond business owners — from Steveston's harbour-front operators to No. 3 Road retailers to Ironwood's industrial tenants — to build the websites, internal tools and automation that fit how this city actually does business, not a generic template built for somewhere else.