Where do most Canadians live?

About 90 per cent of Canadians live within 160 kilometres (100 miles) of the Canada-United States border, the most concentrated population distribution near a border of any country in the world. The pattern reflects Canada's northern geography, with most agricultural land, milder climates, transportation infrastructure, and historical settlement concentrated in the southern strip. About 82 per cent of Canadians live in urban areas, the highest urbanisation rate in the G7 alongside Japan.

The Quebec City to Windsor Corridor (also called the Quebec-Ontario Corridor) holds about half the Canadian population in less than 2 per cent of the country's land area. The corridor contains five of Canada's six metropolitan areas with more than 1 million population: Toronto (about 7 million in the GTA, the largest), Montreal (4.4 million), Ottawa-Gatineau (1.5 million), Hamilton (785,000), and Quebec City (850,000). The corridor's southern Ontario portion (the Golden Horseshoe around Lake Ontario, plus southwestern Ontario) holds about 9.5 million people.

British Columbia's Lower Mainland (the Vancouver metropolitan area and adjoining Fraser Valley) holds about 2.65 million people in the third-largest Canadian metropolitan area. The Vancouver Island Capital Region (Greater Victoria) holds about 415,000. Together the BC Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island hold about 75 per cent of British Columbia's population. Alberta's Calgary-Edmonton corridor along the Queen Elizabeth II Highway (Highway 2) holds about 3.2 million in the two metro areas plus the Red Deer area between them, about 70 per cent of Alberta's population.

Beyond the southern strip, population is sparse. The three territories combined hold about 130,000 people in 3.92 million square kilometres (about 40 per cent of Canada's land area), a population density of one person per 30 square kilometres. Northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec are similarly sparsely populated, with most communities small (under 5,000 people) and accessible only by air, winter road, or rail. Indigenous population is more evenly distributed across the country than the general population, with about 50 per cent of First Nations and Metis people living in urban areas and the remaining 50 per cent on reserves, in northern communities, or in the Inuit Nunangat. About 5 per cent of Canada's population identifies as Indigenous (about 1.8 million First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people).