Like any self-respecting Pacific Northwest city, Vancouver loves coffee. But according to a recent story from the website Apartmentguide, Vancouver isn’t your average coffee city — not even by Pacific Northwest standards.
In fact, it’s at the top of the Pacific Northwest pack, and the No. 2 coffee city in the country overall.
The Apartmentguide post calculates the top 50 coffee cities in the United States based on the ratio between their populations and their number of coffee businesses, including coffee shops, cafes and coffee and tea rooms.
The West Coast overall does very well in terms of coffee shops per capita, as 10 of the top 50 cities are in Washington or Oregon, and another 10 are from California. Seattle, Portland, Everett and Vancouver are all in the top 10.
In absolute terms, Vancouver’s 78 coffee shops are substantially outnumbered by Portland’s 246 and Seattle’s 278. But on a residents-per-shop basis, Vancouver outranks them both, coming in at No. 2 on the overall list with one coffee business for every 2,224 residents, according to the report.
The only city to outrank Vancouver is Berkeley, Calif., with an estimated 2,073 residents for every one coffee business — a level of coffee density that Apartmentguide speculates might be due to the city’s history as the birthplace of Peet’s Coffee.
The Apartmentguide report analyzed cities with populations greater than 100,000 according to the U.S. Census Bureau, although the post does not state how the company determined the number of coffee businesses in each city.
Interestingly, the report cites Vancouver as the most affordable city on the top-10 list. The post includes the average price per month of a one-bedroom apartment in each of the top 10 coffee cities based on Apartmentguide’s January inventory, and Vancouver is listed at $1,167 per month.
By another measurement, Vancouver doesn’t fare as well. A December report from the online service Apartment List pegged Vancouver’s median one-bedroom apartment rent at $1,400, topping the median one-bedroom rates for both Seattle and Portland at the time.
