Official Name: Canada

Area: North America

Size: 9,984,670 km²

Coastline: 202,080 km

Independence: from the UK in 1931

Form of Govt.: Federal multiparty parliamentary state

Head of Govt.: Prime Minister

Capital: Ottawa

Largest City: Toronto

Demographics (2005): 32,896,800,   3.2 /km² 

Canadian (39.42%) , English (20.17%) , French (15.75%), Scottish (14.03%) , Irish (12.90%), German (9.25%), Italian (4.29%), Chinese (3.69%), Ukrainian (3.61%)  North American Indian (3.38%)

GDP per Capita (2005): $34,273 

Languages: English 59.3% (official), French 23.2% (official), Italian 1.6%, German 1.5%, Cantonese 1.1%

Geography: Canada is divided into five regions. (1.) The Atlantic provinces which consist of rounded hills and rolling plains as well as rugged coasts. (2.) The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence lowlands which consist of fertile low lying plains and constitute the heartland of the population. (3.) The Canadian Shield which is an area of Precambrian rock with moss covered, frozen subsoil and treeless plains in the north as well as thick forests to the south. The Canadian Shield extends beyond the US border in two areas, the head of Lake Superior and in the Adirondack Mountains while as a whole it accounts for almost 50% of the land area. The shield is often described as a huge saucer centered on the Hudson and James Bays while it has an average elevation of less than 610 metres (2,000 feet). (4.) The interior plains which are unforested in the south and forested in the north with large deposits of oil and potash. (5.) The Cordillera region which is the western strip of folded and faulted mountains and plateaux.

Climate: varies from temperate in south to subarctic and arctic in north. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the Prairie provinces. Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter.