- Ontario is a province in Canada.
- Ontario is the most populated province in Canada.
- With a population of more than 13.5 million, Ontario is home to about 2 in 5 Canadians. More than 85% live in urban centres, largely in cities on the shores of the Great Lakes.
- Aboriginal peoples – First Nation, Métis and Inuit – make up about 2% of Ontario’s population and about one-fifth of all Aboriginal people in Canada. First Nations peoples in Ontario include Algonquian-speaking Cree, Oji-Cree, Algonquin, Ojibwa, Odawa, Potawatomi and Delaware, plus the Iroquoian-speaking Six Nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora).
- Ontario’s population growth has depended on immigration ever since the American Revolution sent Loyalists north to Canada. Today, 40 % of the approximately 250,000 people who immigrate to Canada each year choose to settle in Ontario.
- Toronto has been called the most multicultural city in the world, where more than 100 languages and dialects are spoken.
- Toronto is the capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada.
- Ontario’s more than 250,000 lakes contain about one-fifth of the world’s fresh water.
- Cultures from around the world thrive and are celebrated in Ontario with festivals such as Caribbean Carnival, Oktoberfest and the Canadian Aboriginal Festival.
- English is Ontario’s official language.
- There are about 5 million households in Ontario and the life expectancy is about 79 years for men and 84 years for women.
The varied landscape of Ontario includes the vast, rocky and mineral-rich Canadian Shield, which separates the fertile farmland in the south and the grassy lowlands of the north. Travellers can enjoy the many experiences, from a wilderness expedition in the north, to a “shop till you drop into your theatre seat” in Toronto, Canada’s largest city (also the 4th largest city in North America after Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles).
- Ontario is Canada’s second largest province, covering more than 1 million square kilometres (415,000 square miles) – an area larger than France and Spain combined.
- Manitoulin Island in Georgian Bay is the world’s largest freshwater island, covering 2,766 square kilometres (1,068 square miles)
- Ontario is bounded by Quebec to the east, Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes (Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario) to the south along with the border with the U.S.A.
- Maps: Open Street Map | Google
- Ontario Weather – Environment Canada