Canada Is Bigger Than the USA… So Why Does Everyone Live Here?

Canada is the second largest country on Earth, slightly bigger than the United States. So why do most Canadians live in a thin strip along the southern border, while the rest of the map stays almost empty? Maps and footage explain why: the cold and the permafrost, the bare rock of the Canadian Shield, the tiny share of land where crops grow, the railway that was built close to the border, and the trade that keeps the factories next to the United States. It ends in the far north, in towns like Iqaluit and Gjoa Haven, where there is no road out and supplies come once a year by ship. Chapters 0:00 The paradox: a huge country, a thin strip of people 0:32 How extreme it really is 1:50 Reason 1: the cold and the frozen ground 3:21 Reason 2: the Canadian Shield 4:47 Reason 3: where food can grow 6:14 Railway, trade and the Windsor to Quebec City corridor 7:38 Life in the far north Some shots are stand-ins and were not filmed in Canada (a few Arctic, mine, orchard and grocery store scenes); they carry no place name on screen. Music: Epidemic Sound (Between Moments - Amber Glow, Deep Space Garden - Rand Aldo, Before Daybreak - Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen). Maps: Natural Earth (public domain); terrain: AWS Terrain Tiles (SRTM, ETOPO1, GEBCO). Footage: Mixkit; Pexels: Ahto Palmre; Akash Malhotra; Ali Soheil; Anamika Basak; Benjamin Eriksen; Braeson Holland; Collab Media; Cyrus Photography; David Montanari; Davis Bae; Destiny Photography; Donovan Kelly; Efrem Efre; Eric Skaggs; Fernando Sánchez Aranguren; Frank Cone; German Korb; Ike Unger; JMT 35; Jakub Zerdzicki; Jorge Pantaleon; K; Kevin Krämer; Matthew Padilla; Mikhail Nilov; Musko io; Neugiernase; Ryan Jones; Salman Ahmad; Stephen Scott; The Six; Tom Fisk; William Bellhouse; cottonbro studio; willy one; US Army Signal Corps / US National Archives via archive.org. Footage and image licences: CC BY 2.0: Wikimedia Commons / Lindsay Nicole Terry (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...) CC BY 4.0: Wikimedia Commons / Kerry Raymond (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / Kerry Raymond (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / Kerry Raymond (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / Kerry Raymond (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...) CC BY-SA 2.0: Wikimedia Commons / Hyougushi - https://www.flickr.com/photos/hyougushi/ (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / Sebastian Kasten (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / TravelingOtter from Houston, Texas, USA (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...) CC BY-SA 3.0: Wikimedia Commons / CambridgeBayWeather (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / CambridgeBayWeather / CambridgeBayWeather (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / M Readey (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / Sebastian Kasten (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...) CC BY-SA 4.0: Wikimedia Commons / Acoteleg (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / Lawrence monkhouse (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / OhanaUnitedTalk page (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / OhanaUnitedTalk page (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / Quintin Soloviev (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...) Public Domain (US Government work, US Army): US Army Signal Corps / US National Archives via archive.org (https://archive.org/details/111-adc-8033) Public domain: Wikimedia Commons / Alexander Ross (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / Copied from original album which was loaned to the Archives (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / James Skitt Matthews (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Wikimedia Commons / The original 1632 map: Samuel de Champlain. This 1850 copy: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...) Additional stock footage: Pexels (Pexels License).