GEOGRAPHY OF CANADA

The geography of Canada is vast and diverse. Occupying most of the northern portion of North America (41% of the continent), Canada is the world's second largest country in total area after Russia.

Canada spans an immense territory between the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Arctic Ocean to the north (hence the country's motto "From sea to sea"), with the United States to the south (contiguous United States) and northwest (Alaska), and the Arctic Ocean to the north; Greenland is to the northeast. Off the southern coast of Newfoundland lies Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, an overseas collectivity of France. Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude to the North Pole; however, this claim is contested.^[1]

Covering 9,984,670 km² or 3,855,103 square miles (Land: 9,093,507 km² or 3,511,023 mi²; Water: 891,163 km² or 344,080 mi²), Canada is slightly less than three-fifths as large as Russia, nearly 1.3 times larger than Australia, slightly larger than Europe, and more than 40 times larger than the UK. In total area, Canada is slightly larger than both the U.S. and China; however, Canada ranks fourth in land area (total area minus the area of lakes and rivers) (China is 9,326,410 km² / 3,600,947 mi² and the U.S. is 9,161,923 km² / 3,537,438 mi²)^[2]

The northernmost settlement in Canada (and in the world) is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert (just north of Alert, Nunavut) on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island – latitude 82.5°N – just 834 kilometres (518 mi) from the North Pole.

The magnetic North Pole lies within the Canadian Arctic territorial claim; however, recent measurements indicate it is moving towards Siberia.