Canada’s Settlement Patterns

Where do Canadians live?

Population Discussion Where would you like to live in Canada? Why? What features are found in this area that you like? Do you think that a majority of Canadians would chose the same

place or area as you?

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: 0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1851 1901 1951 2001

ruralurban

Why Has This Happened?A) Push Factors: - Mechanization of

farms, forestry, mining, etc. = fewer jobs

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? Uneven population

distribution Canada's settlement

pattern is linear. To what?

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

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