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Canada Geography Profile

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LocationNorthern North America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean on the east, North Pacific Ocean on the west, and the Arctic Ocean on the north, north of the conterminous US
Geographic coordinates60 00 N, 95 00 W
Map referencesNorth America
Areatotal: 9,984,670 sq km

land: 9,093,507 sq km

water: 891,163 sq km
Area - comparativeslightly larger than the US
Land boundariestotal: 8,891 km

border countries (3): US 8,891 km (includes 2,475 km with Alaska)

note: Canada is the world's largest country that borders only one country
Coastline202,080 km

note: the Canadian Arctic Archipelago - consisting of 36,563 islands, several of them some of the world's largest - contributes to Canada easily having the longest coastline in the world
Maritime claimsterritorial sea: 12 nm

contiguous zone: 24 nm

exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin
Climatevaries from temperate in south to subarctic and arctic in north
Terrainmostly plains with mountains in west, lowlands in southeast
Elevation extremeshighest point: Mount Logan 5,959 m

lowest point: Atlantic/Pacific/Arctic Oceans 0 m

mean elevation: 487 m
Natural resourcesbauxite, iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, uranium, rare earth elements, molybdenum, potash, diamonds, silver, fish, timber, wildlife, coal, petroleum, natural gas, hydropower
Land useagricultural land: 6.8% (2018 est.)

arable land: 4.7% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.5% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 1.6% (2018 est.)

forest: 34.1% (2018 est.)

other: 59.1% (2018 est.)
Irrigated land8,700 sq km (2012)
Total renewable water resources2.902 trillion cubic meters (2017 est.)
Natural hazards

continuous permafrost in north is a serious obstacle to development; cyclonic storms form east of the Rocky Mountains, a result of the mixing of air masses from the Arctic, Pacific, and North American interior, and produce most of the country's rain and snow east of the mountains

volcanism: the vast majority of volcanoes in Western Canada's Coast Mountains remain dormant

Geography - note

note 1: second-largest country in world (after Russia) and largest in the Americas; strategic location between Russia and US via north polar route; approximately 90% of the population is concentrated within 160 km (100 mi) of the US border

note 2: Canada has more fresh water than any other country and almost 9% of Canadian territory is water; Canada has at least 2 million and possibly over 3 million lakes - that is more than all other countries combined


Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on September 18, 2021

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