B.C. will get six new seats in the next federal election because of its growing population, raising the total number of electoral districts in the province from 36 to 42.

Five of the new seats will be in Lower Mainland, where nearly two thirds of the existing electoral districts are already located, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for B.C. announced on Monday.

The sixth seat will be added on Vancouver Island.

The redrawing of federal ridings usually happen about once a decade after a census. The goal is to make the ridings roughly the same size by population, with about 100,000 people in each.