Canada's Population Characteristics

​Canada's Population Characteristics

​Big Question

​Why do people live where they do in Canada?

Poll

Urban vs. Rural: where would you want to live in the future?

• Urban

• Rural

​Currently, about 80% of Canada's population live in urban areas and 20% live in rural areas

​Where do you fit in this statistic...

Poll

Urban vs. Rural: which area do you currently live in?

• Urban

• Rural

Open Ended

What are some reasons why you think that more people want to live in urban areas rather than rural ones?

Come up with 3 reasons why you think people are moving to cities more.

​Let's take a look at Canada's population characteristics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hvKOgxcOg - copy this link into YouTube

Multiple Choice

According to the video, what is Canada's approx. population?

• 3 million

• 14 million

• 37 million

• 74 million

Multiple Choice

Where do the majority of Canadians (up to 90%) live?

• Close to the Canada-U.S. border

• Western Canada

• Northern Canada

• Eastern Canada

Multiple Choice

Which two cities are the largest in Canada?

• Calgary and Vancouver

• Kitchener and Winnipeg

• Ottawa and Hamilton

• Toronto and Montreal

Multiple Choice

What is Canada's average population density?

• 14 people/km2

• 7 people/km2

• 3.7 people/km2

• 50 people/km2

Multiple Choice

Is Canada's population steadily increasing?

• No

• Yes

Multiple Choice

Today, how much does immigration contribute to Canada's population growth

• 10%

• 30%

• 90%

• 70%

Multiple Choice

Which of these areas is growing the fatest?

• Nunavut

• British Columbia

• Ontario

• P.E.I.

Multiple Choice

True or False: the percentage of adults (ages 65+) outnumbers the percentage of children under 15 years old.

• True

• False

​Canada's Settlement Patterns

​the area of land in a country where people have settled (because it can more easily support life)

​What is ecumene?

Open Ended

If you could move anywhere in Canada, where would it be and why?

​Where do most Canadians Live?

​Examples:

​

​14 million people live in the Mixedwood Plains ecozone

• 300 people live in the Taiga Cordillera ecozone

  • Therefore, settlement patterns in Canada vary from large cities to farming areas to vast areas where few people live.

Mixedwood Plains Ecozone​

​Taiga Cordillera Ecozone

Population Distributuion ​

​Population distribution is the pattern of where people live in a region or country 

• Environmental and human factors can affect the distribution (i.e. water bodies, hills, railways, resource deposits, etc.). 

• Each of these areas has a population density of  4 people/km2 but their population distribution is different

​The Earth at Night

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dc58ZrOuck&t=1s - copy this link into YouTube

Population density?

​

• ​Looks at the concentration (number) of people within a specific geographic location

• ​​To find the population density of an area, divide the number of people by the area (in square km)

​What's the result?

• ​Canada's population is unevenly spread out

• Canada's settlement pattern is linear (US border)

• Over 90% of Canadians live within a 6 hour drive of the United States

• Almost 90% of Canada is empty of human settlement (less than 0.4 people / km2)

​Why do so many of us live near the Canada-U.S. border?

• ​Climate

• Economy and Jobs (we can sell our “stuff” to Americans)

• Agriculture (good farmland)

• Urbanization (moving to bigger cities)

• Other reasons???