Canada

Canada is a very, very big country.

It is in the north of North America. It has snowy mountains, deep forests and blue lakes. The capital city is Ottawa.

Canada is the second-largest country in the world by area, after Russia. It covers roughly the northern two-fifths of North America, about 10 million square kilometers, and it includes thousands of islands, such as Newfoundland in the east and the islands of the Arctic far to the north.

Canada is made of 10 provinces and 3 territories. Even though it is so big, not many people live in much of it. About 42 million people lived there in 2026, and most of them live in the south, fairly close to the border with the United States. The capital is Ottawa.

Canada, the second-largest country in area after Russia, occupies roughly the northern two-fifths of the North American continent, 9,984,670 km² including thousands of adjacent islands such as Newfoundland and those of the Arctic Archipelago. It spans about 52° to 141° W, across six time zones, and about 42° to 83° N.

Britannica calls it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world: the overwhelming majority of people live within about 300 km of the US border. Statistics Canada estimated the population at 41,798,407 on July 1, 2026. The federation has 10 provinces and 3 territories: Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The capital, Ottawa, is the fourth-largest city; Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are the three largest.

Ottawa is the capital city.

A long canal runs through it. Quebec City is very old. It still has stone walls around it. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are big cities.

Ottawa, the capital, lies about 400 kilometers northeast of Toronto and 200 kilometers west of Montreal. The Rideau Canal, built in the early 1800s, runs 202 kilometers from Ottawa to Lake Ontario, and boats still use it along its original route.

Quebec City was founded in the early 1600s by the French explorer Champlain. It is the only city in North America that still has its old ramparts, the strong walls, gates and forts around its oldest part. Toronto and Montreal are Canada's largest cities, and Vancouver, on the Pacific coast, is the third largest.

Ottawa, the national capital and Canada's fourth-largest city, lies about 400 km northeast of Toronto and 200 km west of Montreal, the country's first and second cities; Vancouver, third, is the main trade center facing the Pacific Rim. The Rideau Canal (World Heritage Site, 2007) is an early 19th-century work covering 202 km of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers from Ottawa to Kingston Harbour. It was built mainly for military purposes when Britain and the United States both sought control of the region, and UNESCO calls it the only canal from that era still working along its original line with most structures intact.

Old Québec (inscribed 1985) was founded by Champlain in the early 17th century; UNESCO describes it as the only North American city to keep its ramparts, with bastions, gates and a Citadel. Its Upper Town on the cliff includes Château Frontenac; together with the Lower Town it is one of the best examples of a fortified colonial city.

Canada has tall mountains called the Rockies.

They have glaciers and lakes. In the far north, there is lots of ice and snow. The tallest mountain is Mount Logan. Big waterfalls roar at Niagara Falls.

In the west, the Canadian Rockies are full of peaks, glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, canyons and caves. Banff, there, was Canada's first national park. At the Burgess Shale fossil site in these parks, rocks hold fossils of soft-bodied sea animals.

In the far southwest of Yukon, Kluane National Park has huge icefields and the country's highest mountain, Mount Logan, 5,959 meters tall. To the north, Canada breaks into thousands of Arctic islands, such as Baffin Island with its fjords. Niagara Falls lies on the border with the United States.

The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, inscribed in 1984, join Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho national parks with three provincial parks in a landscape of peaks, glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, canyons and limestone caves; the Burgess Shale within them is known for fossils of soft-bodied marine animals. Banff was Canada's first national park and is the flagship of the system.

In southwest Yukon, the Icefield Ranges of the St. Elias Mountains fill two-thirds of Kluane National Park and Reserve's interior; Mount Logan (5,959 m) rises there with Mount St. Elias (5,489 m) and others. Kluane is part of a World Heritage complex shared with Alaska that UNESCO says contains the largest non-polar icefield in the world. Britannica describes the country's relief region by region, from the Canadian Shield and the interior plains to the Western Cordillera and the Arctic Archipelago.

Polar bears live in the far north of Canada.

Mother bears make dens for their cubs. Beavers build dams with sticks and mud. Moose are very tall and munch on twigs.

Near the town of Churchill, on Hudson Bay, Wapusk National Park protects one of the biggest areas in the world where mother polar bears dig dens to have their cubs. The park sits where the northern forest meets the Arctic tundra.

Beavers are the largest rodents in North America. They build dams of branches, stones and mud across streams, making ponds. Long ago, beaver fur was at the heart of the fur trade. Moose are the largest members of the deer family. The biggest bulls stand about 2 meters tall at the shoulder and eat woody twigs and buds.

Wapusk National Park, 11,475 km² on the transition between boreal forest and Arctic tundra near Churchill, Manitoba, protects one of the largest polar bear maternity denning areas in the world; visits are made only with licensed tour operators.

Beavers (genus Castor) are the largest rodents in North America and Eurasia, with bodies up to 80 cm long and weights of 16–30 kg. Britannica calls them ecosystem engineers: their dams of branches, stones and mud create ponds that can cover many hectares. They were at the heart of the colonial fur trade, which pushed trappers westward. The moose (Alces alces), the largest member of the deer family, lives across northern North America and Eurasia and browses woody twigs and buds; the largest bulls, in Alaska and eastern Siberia, weigh about 600 kg and stand 2 m at the shoulder.

About 42 million people live in Canada.

Many people speak English. Many people speak French. First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples have lived here for a very long time.

Canada has two official languages, English and French. In 2021, about three in four people had English as their first official language and about one in five had French; in Quebec, more than four in five did. Many families came from other countries, and after English and French, Mandarin and Punjabi were the most spoken languages at home.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit are the Indigenous peoples of Canada. In 2021, about 1.8 million Indigenous people lived there, and they reported more than 70 Indigenous languages. Inuit call 50 communities in four northern regions home, and in Nunavut, Canada's newest territory, Inuit have a semiautonomous status, which means they run many of their own affairs.

English and French are the official languages. In the 2021 census, 75.5 percent of people had English as their first official language spoken and 21.4 percent French (82.2 percent in Quebec); 18.0 percent were bilingual in both. One in eight people spoke mainly another language at home, a record; Mandarin and Punjabi were the most common, each with more than half a million speakers.

Statistics Canada counted 1,807,250 Indigenous people in 2021, 5.0 percent of the population: First Nations (58.0 percent of them), Métis (34.5) and Inuit (3.9), the three groups recognized in the Constitution Act, 1982. They include more than 600 First Nations and Inuit living in four regions and 50 communities of Inuit Nunangat, and they reported more than 70 Indigenous languages. Inuit hold a semiautonomous status in Nunavut, Canada's newest territory.