Canada’s Settlement Patterns
Where do Canadians live?
Population Discussion
Where would you like to live in Canada?
 Why?
 Based on these responses, where do most Canadians
live?
 Examples:

14 million people live in the Mixedwood Plains
300 people live in the Taiga Cordillera
Therefore, settlement patterns in Canada vary from large
cities to farming areas to vast areas where few people live.
Population Change in Canada
Urbanization in
Canada

Over the past
150 years, the ratio
of Canadians living
in urban areas vs.
rural areas has
reversed itself:
100%
80%
60%
rural
40%
urban
20%
0%
1851
1901
1951
2001
Why Has This Happened?

A) Push Factors:
- Mechanization of
farms, forestry, mining, etc. meant fewer jobs
available in rural areas.

B) Pull Factors:
- Jobs & wealth are
increasingly concentrated in the cities
New immigrants are generally professionals
and want to live in cities
What is 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)
Population Density



A mathematical measure of the number of people
living in each square kilometre of land.
A measure of "how crowded" a place is.
It tells us nothing about where people live.
 Population Density = Population  Area

Canada's Population Density
 = 31 500 000 people  9 992 000 km2
  3.1 people / km2
 Brampton's Population Density
 = 420 000 people  266.53 km2
  1575 people / km2
Population Distribution

Describes 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
☻
☻
☻
☻
☻☻
☻☻
☻☻☻☻