KELOWNA is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of the Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word, referring to a male grizzly bear.

Kelowna is the province's third-largest metropolitan area after Vancouver and Victoria. After many years of suburban expansion into the surrounding mountain slopes, the city council adopted a long-term plan intended to increase density instead - particularly in the downtown core. This has resulted in the construction of taller buildings, including One Water Street - a 36-storey building that will be among the tallest in Kelowna once completed in 2021.

The exact dates of first settlement in the Okanagan Valley are unknown, but a northern migration led to the habitation of this area some 9,000 years ago. The Indigenous Syilx people are the first known inhabitants of the region, where they continue to live today.

Kelowna was officially incorporated on May 4, 1905 with a population of 600. The town's first mayor was Henry Raymer.

Although agriculture had become an important mark of Kelowna on the surrounding region, the town was entirely reliant on transportation over Okanagan Lake until 1925. In 1893 the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed the steamer SS Aberdeen on the lake, which served as the first significant transportation link between Kelowna and Penticton, greatly increasing the speed of Kelowna's growth.