British Columbia ( ˌbrɪtɨʃ kəˈlʌmbiə (help·info)) (BC) (French: la Colombie-Britannique, C.-B.) is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu ("Splendour without Diminishment"). In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.
The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada and the second-largest in the Pacific Northwest. In 2009, British Columbia had a population of 4,419,974 (around 2 million of which was in Metro Vancouver).