Enrolment Planning

May 8, 2026

The Educational and Facilities Planning department manages the collection, analysis, and reporting of enrolment and educational program data and provides short, medium, and long-term enrolment forecasts for the District, Families of Schools Regions, Families of Schools, and Individual school catchments. These forecasts are used to plan for student accommodation, staffing needs, budget forecasting, space use planning, and annual capital planning.

Please consider the Enrolment Update Report 2025 which was presented to the Facilities Planning Committee on June 16, 2025 as a reference for VSB enrolment projections based on the best available information.

Capacity Utilization and Space Use

Capacity utilization and space use at schools varies widely across the District. At present, many schools in the District have low-capacity utilization. There are also areas of the district experiencing enrolment pressure where schools have insufficient capacity to accommodate catchment student enrolment demand.

Read Chapter 6 of the current Long-Range Facilities Plan, approved on January 25, 2021 for more information.

Enrolment Management Strategies

For areas experiencing enrolment pressure where schools have insufficient capacity to accommodate catchment student enrolment demand, the District applies enrolment management strategies in accordance with procedures set out in AP 300 Admission to School.

Enrolment management strategies are used for the following purposes:

To ensure continuity and stability for students and their families
To provide equitable access to programs an support educational programming
To maximize the number of students that can be accommodated at catchment schools
To ensure efficient and effective use of resources allocated to staffing schools

The diagram below shows enrolment management strategies that are used by the district to maximize student accommodation at full schools.

Read Chapter 4 of the current Long-Range Facilities Plan, approved on January 25, 2021 for more information.

District Enrolment Considerations

Despite an overall increase in Vancouver’s population, both the birth rate and the number of school-aged children continue to decline in the city, resulting in a 26-year history of generally declining enrolment at the VSB. Although there is growth of school-aged children in certain high-density areas such as Olympic Village, the North Cambie Corridor, and Downtown core, this is offset by the declining number of school aged children in other areas in Vancouver. Several factors contribute to the enrolment decline including an ageing population, reduced birth rate, and housing unaffordability resulting in more families with school aged children moving out of the city.

Enrolment History

The chart below illustrates the trend of declining enrolment in relation to overall population growth in the District. Since 1997, the population in the City of Vancouver and UBC/UEL areas has increased by about 160,000 whereas in the same period VSB enrolment has declined by close to 9,000 students. In 10 years, by 2032, the area is expected to have an increase of around 84,000 residents whereas VSB is forecast to have approximately 43,000 students, a decrease of nearly 5,000 students from 2022 numbers.

Enrolment Projections

Related Committee Reports