THIS PAGE IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING UPDATED.

CLICK ON THE NAMES OF THE PROVINCES/TERRITORIES FOR INFORMATION AND LINKS ON THOSE PLACES

© 2000. Government of Canada with permission from Natural Resources Canada.

1. The Dominion of Canada was formed July 1, 1867, by Ontario, Quebec (Upper and Lower Canada), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Other provinces joined Confederation over the years, the last being Newfoundland in 1949.

2. Dominion Day was officially renamed Canada Day on Oct. 27, 1982.

3. Canada has 10 provinces and three territories. The third territory came about in 1999: Nunavut, with 25,000 mostly Inuit people and almost one-quarter of Canada's land mass.

4. Canada is the world's second largest country, surpassed only by Russia. At 10 million square kilometres, Canada has seven per cent of the world's land mass and nine per cent of its fresh water supply.

5. Canada's Constitution, the British North America Act of 1867, was patriated from Britain without Quebec's endorsement in 1982, incorporating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

6. Anthropologists believe North American aboriginal groups migrated over the Bering Sea from Siberia 10,000 to 30,000 years ago. Canada's aboriginal population in the 1996 census was 799,010.

7. Canada's population in the 1996 census was 28.8 million, with 10.6 million in the most populous province, Ontario.

8. The first known European colony in the Americas existed about 1,000 years ago, when the Norse settled at L'Anse aux Meadows, Nfld.

9. On June 24, 1497, Italian Giovanni Caboto, or John Cabot, landed on the Atlantic coast of North America, claiming it for England. France claimed possession in 1534 with the explorations of Jacques Cartier.

10. In 1603, Samuel de Champlain began historic exploration and mapping of New France, including parts of what are now New England and Ontario.

11. British forces, led by Gen. James Wolfe, defeated the French under the Marquis de Montcalm in a 10-minute battle on the Plains of Abraham, at Quebec City, in 1759. Four years later, France ceded New France to Britain.

12. The first person to navigate the Northwest Passage was the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, in 1903-06.

13. Canada's first known execution occurred in New France in 1649 after a 16-year-old girl was found guilty of theft.

14. An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 Canadians fought in the American Civil War.

15. A company of freed black slaves fought for Britain at Queenston Heights, Ont., in the War of 1812.

16. Emily Murphy of Edmonton became the first woman judge in the Commonwealth in 1916.

17. Women won the right to vote in Canadian federal elections in 1918. In 1929, less than four per cent of women worked outside the home; in 1994, 54 per cent of females aged 15 and up worked outside the home.

18. In 1864, John A. Macdonald voted against Confederation. He later became Canada's first prime minister and was knighted by Queen Victoria.

19. In 1858, British Columbia was declared a British colony. B.C. joined Canada as the sixth province in 1871.

20. On Dec. 6, 1921, Agnes MacPhail became the first woman elected to the House of Commons. She promoted the co-operative movement, civil liberties and social reform.

21. On Oct. 18, 1929, women were declared "persons" under the British North America Act and thus eligible for Senate appointments. The ruling came from Canada's highest court at the time, the judicial committee of the British Privy Council.

22. The most common family name in Canada is Tremblay: 180,000, including one in 50 Quebecers.

29. Canada's highest mountain is Mount Logan, Yukon: 5,959 metres.

24. Niagara Falls is the largest waterfall in the world by volume, but its vertical drop is just one-eighth that of Canada's highest waterfall: Della Falls, B.C., which is 440 metres high.

25. Canada's oldest English speaking university is the University of King's College, established at Windsor, N.S., in 1789 and now in Halifax as part of Dalhousie University.

26. Manitoba has the largest population of Icelanders outside Iceland. The Gimli area, nicknamed Little Iceland, was settled by pioneers from Iceland in 1875.

27. Creation of the North-West Mounted Police was expedited after 36 Assiniboine were massacred by a gang of U.S. and Canadian wolf hunters in 1873 in the Cypress Hills of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

28. The world's largest explosion before the nuclear era occurred in Halifax harbor on Dec. 6, 1917. The French munitions ship Mont Blanc collided with the Belgian relief ship Imo, causing a blast that killed more than 1,600 people and injured 9,000.

29. Quebec is Canada's largest province, at 1.5 million square kilometres.

30. The Mackenzie River is Canada's longest, flowing 4,241 kilometres through the Northwest Territories.

31. O Canada, composed by Calixa Lavallee, was proclaimed the national anthem on July 1, 1980, a century after being sung for the first time. Lavallee, born in Quebec, fought for the North in the U.S. Civil War.

32. Martin Luther King called Canada the "North Star" for black slaves. The Underground Railway enabled 30,000 runaway slaves to reach Canada from 1840 to 1860.

33. The most common non-official mother tongue in the Atlantic region is Mi'kmaq. Most common in Central Canada: Italian. Prairie provinces: German. B.C.: Chinese. Northwest Territories: Inuktitut. Yukon: Athapaskan languages of Dene.

34. Canada's first woman prime minister was Kim Campbell (1993). The first woman governor-general was Jeanne Sauve (1984).

35. The most northern point of land in Canada is at Cape Columbia, N.W.T. The most southern community is Pelee Island South and the most southern point is on Middle Island, Ont., both on Lake Erie. The most southern city is Windsor, Ont.



CANADA BY NUMBERS
30,007,094: The number of Canadians counted in the 2001 census (32,040,292 as of October, 2004)
33,871,000: The population of California
30,291,000: The population of Algeria
4: Percentage growth of Canada's population between 1996 and 2001
14.6: Percentage growth of Canada's population between 1951 and 1956
235,000: Estimated number of immigrants who came to Canada in 2001
63,854: Estimated number of people who left Canada in 2001
277,981: Growth of Alberta's population between 1996 and 2001
38,862: Shrinkage of Newfoundland's population between 1996 and 2001
1.5: As of 2001, the average number of children a woman will have over her lifetime
4: As of 1956, the average number of children a woman would have over her lifetime
79.4: Percentage of Canadians who lived in urban centres of 10,000 or more in 2001
51: Percentage of Canada's population living in four major urban centres -- the metropolitan Montreal area; the Golden Horseshoe in Southern Ontario; the Calgary-Edmonton corridor and British Columbia's Lower Mainland.

Land Mass

At 9 970 610 km², Canada is the world's second-largest country, surpassed only by the Russian Federation.
Canada comprises 7% of the world's land mass, and 9% of its fresh water supply. Of a total of over ten million square kilometres, over nine million are land and 755 000 fresh water.

See Chart One for more detailed information

Capital

Ottawa, in the province of Ontario.

Provinces and Territories

Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories, each with its own capital city (in brackets): Alberta (Edmonton);
British Columbia (Victoria); Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown); Manitoba (Winnipeg); New Brunswick
(Fredericton); Nova Scotia (Halifax); Ontario (Toronto); Quebec (Quebec City); Saskatchewan (Regina);
Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John's); Northwest Territories (Yellowknife), Nunavut ( Iqaluit), and Yukon Territory (Whitehorse).

See also the Provinces site with links to information on all provinces & territories and the Cities site.

PROVINCE AND TERRITORY SYMBOLS -CANADA POST

* Newfoundland and Labrador's postal abbreviation was changed to NL as of Oct, 2002. 

 

Population by province as of July 1, 2003:

Canada will have a new Northern territory in 1999, when the present Northwest Territories will be divided in
two. The eastern two-thirds of the existing Northwest Territories will be known as Nunavut. In the Inuit language
of Inukkiut, Nunavut means "Our Land." The creation of this new territory is the result of an agreement made
between the Inuit and the Canadian Government regarding land settlement and Aboriginal rights. Nunavut will
encompass almost one quarter of Canada's land mass, (2 242 000 square kilometres). Statistics Canada
estimates that 24 900 people lived in the proposed Nunavut territory in 1995. The largest centres are the town of
Iqaluit (population 4 300 in 1995) and the hamlet of Rankin Inlet (population 2 100). In December of 1995,
Nunavut residents chose Iqaluit to be their capital.

See the Nunavut page and /or the Northwest Territories page.

Geography

Diversity is the keynote of Canada's geography, which includes fertile plains suitable for agriculture, vast mountain
ranges, lakes and rivers. Wilderness forests give way to arctic tundra in the Far North.

See the Geography resources page

Climate

There are of course many climatic variations in this huge country, ranging from the permanently frozen icecaps
north of the 70th parallel to the luxuriant vegetation of British Columbia's west coast. On the whole, though,
Canada has four very distinct seasons, especially in the regions lying along the U.S. border.

Daytime summer temperatures can rise to 35 °C and higher, while lows of -25 are not uncommon in winter.
More moderate temperatures are the norm in spring and fall.

See climate & related links on the Climate Graphs page.

National Parks and Historic Sites

The Canadian government has set aside more than 100 national parks and historic sites in honour of the people,
places and events that have marked the country's history. Similarly, the provincial governments may form
provincial parks.

Canada's 37 national parks are spread throughout the country. Banff, located on the eastern slopes of Alberta's
Rocky Mountains, is the oldest, having opened in 1885, while Vuntut in the northern Yukon was established as
recently as 1993.

See History Resources

Mountain Ranges

As one might expect, Canada's terrain incorporates a number of mountain ranges: the Torngats, Appalachians
and Laurentians in the east; the Rocky, Coastal and Mackenzie ranges in the west; and Mount St. Elias and the
Pelly Mountains in the north. At 6050 m, Mount Logan in the Yukon is Canada's tallest peak.

See the map

Lakes

The main lakes, in order of the surface area located in Canada, (many large lakes are traversed by the
Canada-U.S. border), are Huron, Great Bear, Superior, Great Slave, Winnipeg, Erie and Ontario. Great Bear
Lake in the Northwest Territories is the largest lake situated entirely in Canada; its area is 31 326 km².

For more information see the Lakes page and the Great Lakes site. Also see Chart Nine for a graph of the largest lakes.

There are 31,754 lakes in Canada of which 204 are named Long Lake; 182 called Mud Lake; 100 named Moose Lake.

Rivers

The St. Lawrence River, which is 3058 km long, provides a seaway for ships from the Great Lakes to the
Atlantic Ocean. The Mackenzie is the longest river, flowing 4241 km through the Northwest Territories. The
Yukon and the Columbia, parts of which flow through U.S. territory, the Nelson, the Saskatchewan, the Peace
and the Churchill are also major watercourses.

See Chart Nine for a graph of the longest rivers.

Time Zones

Canada has six time zones. The easternmost, in Newfoundland, is three hours and 30 minutes behind Greenwich
Mean Time (GMT). The other time zones are the Atlantic, the Eastern, the Central, the Rocky Mountain and,
farthest west, the Pacific, which is eight hours behind GMT.

See the Time Zone map for a closer look.

Political System

Canada is a constitutional monarchy and a federal state with a democratic parliament. The Parliament of Canada,
in Ottawa, consists of the House of Commons, whose members are elected, and the Senate, whose members are
appointed. On average, members of Parliament are elected every four years.

See the General Resources page for more information and links. Also see the Current Premiers page and the Prime Ministers page.

National Emblem

The maple leaf has been associated with Canada since the 1700s. It has become the country's most important
symbol since the national flag was introduced in 1965.

Also check out Symbols of Canada

National Anthem

O Canada was proclaimed the national anthem on July 1, 1980, a century after being sung for the first time.

National Anthem of Canada

Currency

The Canadian dollar is divided into 100 cents.

The Royal Canadian Mint - Learning Activities Teachers, Parents and Children

Population

30,007,094: The number of Canadians counted in the 2001 census (32,040,292 as of October, 2004.)

At the time of the June 1996 census, Canada's population was 28.8 million. This represents an increase of 1.5
million, or 5.7% since the June 1991 census. This growth in population has been attributed, in equal degree, to
both immigration and natural increase (births minus deaths). Between 1991 and 1996, the population of Canada
grew at an average annual rate of 1.1%, this being the highest annual average growth rate of all G-7 industrialized
nations. Canada represents approximately 0.5% of the global population.

Also see Chart Two

Main Cities

According to the 1996 census, the leading Canadian cities are Toronto (4.26 million), Montreal (3.33 million),
Vancouver (1.83 million), Ottawa-Hull, the National Capital Region (1.01million) and Edmonton (0.86 million).

Also see the Cities list.

Urban and Rural Population

The majority of Canadians, 76.6 percent, live in cities and towns, while 23.4 percent live in rural areas.
According to the 1991 census, 31 percent of the population (8.61 million people) live in the three largest cities of
Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

See Chart on the Canada Information Page

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy at birth

Family Size

At the time of the 1996 national census, the average family size was 3.1 persons, including 1.3 children. Family
size has remained unchanged since the 1991 census.

Living Standard

Only five countries have a higher standard of living than does Canada. These are the United States, Switzerland,
Luxembourg, Germany and Japan. Canada ranks higher than the United States in terms of life expectancy, and
higher than Japan in terms of education. Consequently, the United Nations has ranked Canada as the highest on
its "Human Development Index." More than 65% of Canadians own their own homes. An even higher percentage
of Canadians own durable goods such as automobiles, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, telephones
and radios. Telephone service is virtually universal in Canada. Sixteen million access lines bring service to 99
percent of Canadian homes. With one of the best telecommunications systems in the world, Canadians are
increasingly hooking into the information highway. In 1995, close to 30 percent of households had home
computers, and over 40 percent of those computers were equipped with modems for accessing the internet.

Health Care and Social Security

All Canadians have free access to health care, with the exception of dental services. Most people over 65 and
social aid recipients receive the majority of their prescription drugs free of charge. According to the 1994
National Population Health Survey, 62% of the adult Canadian population rated their health as excellent or very
good. Also in 1994, 77% of Canadian adults reported that they had consulted a physician at least once in the
previous year. Fifty-five percent reported having visited a dentist, 35% an eye specialist, and 27% had seen other
types of health specialists.

Canadian governments spent an estimated $48 billion on health care in 1993-94. This means a total of almost
$1,700 was spent on health services for each Canadian. This placed Canada as second in the world to the
United States in terms of health care expenditures. Canada also has an extensive social security network including
old age pension, family allowance, unemployment insurance and welfare.

First Nations

In 1991, 533 000 Canadians were either status or non-status Indians. Four percent of Canadians (over one
million Canadians) report Aboriginal ancestry. However, only 626,000 individuals identify themselves exclusively
as members of the three Aboriginal groups recognized by the Constitution Act, 1982: North American Indian
(460 680), Inuit (36 215) or Métis (135 265). Among these groups, 171,000 people still speak one of the more
than 50 remaining Aboriginal languages.

Ontario had the highest concentration of Aboriginal peoples -- 243 550 -- but the Northwest Territories had the
highest proportion: more than 60 percent of its population is of Aboriginal descent.

Only 295 032 Canadian Aboriginals live on reserves or in settlements.

See links on the General Resources page.

Religion  Population by religion (2001 Census)

Languages

Census data from 1991 indicates English as the mother tongue of 16.1 million Canadians, and French, the
language of 6.5 million. These are Canada's two official languages. However, many Canadians have a mother
tongue other than English or French, including Italian, Chinese, German, Portuguese, Polish, Ukrainian, Dutch,
Greek or other languages. In 1991, Aboriginal languages were reported as mother tongue by 193 000
Canadians. English-French bilingualism increased dramatically within Canada from 1951 to 1991. The number of
bilingual Canadians more than doubled during this period, rising from 1.7 million to 4.4 million, while the
proportion rose from 12% to 16%.

See Chart Six

Ethnic Origin

Population by selected ethnic origins (2001 Census)

Culture

The Aboriginal cultures are the only truly indigenous cultures of Canada, since all other Canadians were originally
immigrants. They began moving to Canada in the 17th century, bringing with them their manner of dress, food
preferences and customs. Canada opened its doors to immigration from all over the world in the early 20th
century; in 1988, the multicultural character of the country was officially recognized when the Government passed
the Multiculturalism Act.

See General Resources

Education

The educational system varies from province to province and includes six to eight years of elementary school,
four or five years of secondary school and three or four years at the university undergraduate level. The 1991
census revealed that among Canadians aged 15 and over, 56.9 percent had attended secondary school, 31.7
percent had gone to a trade school or other type of post-secondary institution, and 1.9 million -- 11.4 percent of
the population -- had a university degree.

Adult Literacy

According to 1994 data, literacy is strongly related to formal education in Canada. As we move into the
information age, literacy becomes increasingly important. Literacy rates in Canada compare favourably to those in
other industrialized nations. In fact, the United Nations estimates that out of one hundred Canadian adults, all but
one are able to read, write and understand a simple sentence. This represents as high a rate of adult literacy as
anywhere in the world.

Sports

The most popular sports in Canada include swimming, ice hockey, cross-country and alpine skiing, baseball,
tennis, basketball and golf. Ice hockey, Canadian football and baseball are the favourite spectator sports.

Main Natural Resources

The principal natural resources are natural gas, oil, gold, coal, copper, iron ore, nickel, potash, uranium and zinc,
along with wood and water.

See The Great Lakes page and the Geography Resources page.

Gross Domestic Product

The GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced by a country during a year. Canada's GDP was
$577.8 billion US dollars in 1996.

Leading Industries

These include automobile manufacturing, pulp and paper, iron and steel work, machinery and equipment
manufacturing, mining, extraction of fossil fuels, forestry and agriculture.

Exports

Canadian exports valued $274.88 billion Canadian in 1996. These included transportation equipment, capital
equipment, pulp and paper, fuels, wood, minerals and aluminum.

Imports

Canada's imports totaled $232.94 billion Canadian in 1996. This includes transportation equipment, capital
equipment, electronics and plastics. See: Imports/Exports

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