Canada is a thriving, multicultural country set in a vast, and spectacularly diverse landscape that stretches, as her motto says, "A mari usque ad mare" -- from sea to sea. From the Pacific, over the snow-capped Rockies, under the endless sky across the wide expanse of the prairies, and through the rugged Canadian Shield, to the Atlantic, Canada also has vibrant cities, friendly towns, and no end to the great outdoors. We're big on size (the second-largest country in the world, at 9,984,670 sq km) and small on population (40.1 million), so we have plenty of room to welcome you!

Some Canadian Statistics

• Population: 41 million (2025 est.)
  
• Life expectancy at birth: 84.2 years (2024 est.) (Note for 2024: UK life expectancy at birth is 82.2 years, and US life expectancy at birth is 80.9 years)

Some Facts about Canada:

• Canada has six primary time zones, from east to west: Newfoundland Time Zone, Atlantic Time Zone, Eastern Time Zone, Central Time Zone, Mountain Time Zone, and the Pacific Time Zone.
  
• Canada is made up of 10 provinces and three territories.
  
• Canada shares the longest land border in the world with its neighbour the United States, at 8,891 km (5,525 miles)
• A 2020 OECD study said that Canada ranks first in postsecondary educational attainment among OECD countries, with 60% of Canadians possessing tertiary education.
  
• Some of Canada's national parks are bigger than some countries: Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories, at 30,050 square km (11,602 square miles) is larger than Albania and Israel, and Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta and the Northwest Territories, at 44,807 square km (17,300 square miles) is bigger than Denmark and Switzerland.
  
• Natural Resources Canada says that Canada has 367 million hectares (906 million acres) of forest land. This represents 9% of the world’s forests and 28% of the world’s boreal forests. And with nearly 10 hectares (25 acres) of forest per person, Canadians have more forest area per capita than do residents in most other countries.
• Canada has more lake area than any other country in the world, with 563 lakes larger than 100 square km (39 square miles), as well as the most lakes of any country in the world.
  
• Canada has large amounts of minerals, e.g., we are the world's largest producers of potash, the second-largest producer of uranium, the third-largest producer of diamonds, the fourth-largest producer of palladium, cobalt, and aluminum, etc.

Other Random Facts about Canada:

• National Animal: Beaver (no, not the "trash panda", i.e., raccoon, and not the "cobra chicken," i.e., Canada Goose)
• It's no secret that Canada's favourite sport is hockey, but also very popular are basketball (invented by Canadian, James Naismith in 1891), baseball, and soccer. And since we are such a sport-loving nation, we have both an official winter sport (hockey) and summer sport (lacrosse). People outside of Canada and the USA are not often familiar with this sport, which is played using a lacrosse stick and ball, and was being played by North America's indigenous peoples as early as the 12th century.
• In 2008, Santa Claus was formally awarded Canadian citizenship. And if you want to write to Santa, his Canadian postal code is HOH OHO
• The US has tried unsuccessfully to invade Canada more than once, most notably several times during the Revolutionary War (1775-1776) and during the War of 1812 (which resulted in the White House being burned down in 1814).