7 amazing facts about Canada

These surprising facts about Canada will make you look at the beautiful country in a whole new way.

You might know a lot about the country, Canada.
But these surprising facts about Canada will make you look at the beautiful country in a whole new way.

1. Canada has more lakes than you think
   Did you know Canada has more lake area than every other country in the world? The Great White North has 563 lakes larger than 100 square kilometres. The Great Lakes alone contain about 18 percent of the world’s fresh lake water.

1. Canada is bigger than the European Union
   Here are some facts to put Canada’s size in perspective: It’s bigger than the entire European Union (33 times bigger than Italy and 15 times bigger than France), more than 30 percent larger than Australia, five times as big as Mexico, three times as big as India and about the same size as 81,975 Walt Disney Worlds put together!

2. Canada can get as cold as Mars
   You might want to rethink packing your bags before heading to this cold country. One of the most common facts about Canada is that it can get pretty cold in the winter. The average low for the month of January in Ottawa, Ont. is -14.4 C (6.1 F). That’s pretty cold! However, a temperature of -63 C (-81.4 F) was recorded in 1947 in Snag, a small village on February 3, 1947. That’s roughly the same temperature as the surface of Mars!

3. Canada has the world’s longest coastline
   If you walked and never stopped, it would take you four and a half years to walk the length of Canada’s coastline. Canada has the world’s longest coastline, bordered on three sides by three different oceans: the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific.

4. Canada has 10 percent of the world’s forests
   Did you know that Canada actually has 30 percent of the world’s boreal forest and 10 percent of the world’s total forest cover? An incredible 396.9 million hectares of forest and other wooded lands can be found across the country.

5. Canada’s national parks are bigger than most countries
   Canada is so big that even their parks are bigger than countries. Just look at Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories: not only is it a sight to behold with massive waterfalls, it’s also an incredible 30,050 square kilometres – bigger than Albania and Israel. Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta and the Northwest Territories is even bigger at 44,807 square kilometres, which makes it bigger than Denmark and Switzerland.

6. Canada has more oil than you think
   Canada has an estimated 176.8 billion recoverable barrels of oil. Crude bitumen – a semi-solid source of petroleum – is available in abundance in Canada’s oil sands. There are an estimated 249.67 billion accessible barrels of the black stuff in the world and Canada has about 70.8 percent of it – four times more than Kazakhstan and six times more than