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Central Europe

Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in this region also share historical and cultural similarities.

Whilst the region is variously defined, it often includes Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. From the early 16th century until the early 18th century, parts of present-day Croatia and Hungary were under Ottoman rule. During the 17th century, the empire also occupied southern parts of present-day Slovakia. During the Early Modern period, the territories of Poland and Lithuania were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Meanwhile, the Archduchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Bohemia (Czech Republic), the Duchy of Carniola (part of present-day Slovenia), the various German Principalities and the Old Swiss Confederacy were within the Holy Roman Empire. By the end of the 18th century, the Habsburg monarchy, a prominent power within the empire, came to reign over the territories of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, alongside parts of Serbia, Germany, Italy, Poland and Switzerland.

The countries that make up Central Europe have historically been, and in some cases continue to be, divided into either Eastern or Western Europe. After World War II, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain into two parts, the capitalist Western Bloc and the communist Eastern Bloc, although Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia (encompassing the territories of present-day Croatia, Slovenia and various other Balkans nations) declared neutrality. The Berlin Wall was one of the most visible symbols of this division. Respectively, countries in Central Europe have historical, cultural and geopolitical ties with these wider regions of Europe.

Central Europe began a "strategic awakening" in the late 20th and early 21st century, with initiatives such as Central European Defence Cooperation, the Central European Initiative, Centrope, and the Visegrád Four Group. This awakening was accelerated by writers and other intellectuals, who recognized the societal paralysis of decaying dictatorships and felt compelled to speak up against Soviet oppression.

Middle Ages and early modern period
In the early Middle Ages, Central Europe had a diverse landscape, with various ethnic groups inhabiting the region. Germanic tribes, among them the Franks, Alemans and Bavarians, were predominantly situated in the west, while Slavic tribes were predominantly in the east. However, the region encompassed a wide spectrum of additional tribes and communities.

From the late 6th century to the early 9th century, the area roughly corresponding to the Carpathian Basin was part of the Avar Khaganate, the realm of the Pannonian Avars. While the Avars dominated the east of what is now Austria, its north and south were under Germanic and Slavic influence, respectively. Meanwhile, the territories now comprising Germany and Switzerland were under the influence of the Merovingian dynasty, and later the Carolingian dynasty. Various Slavic tribes that inhabited eastern Central Europe established settlements during this period, primarily in present-day Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The territory of Lithuania was inhabited by Baltic tribes. Amongst them were the Samogitians, Aukštaitians and Curonians.

The Holy Roman Empire was founded at the turn of the 9th century, following the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III. At its inception, it incorporated present-day Germany and nearby regions, including parts of what is now Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland. Three decades later, Great Moravia, centred in present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia, became one of the first West Slavic states to be founded in Central Europe. In the late 9th Century, the Hungarian tribes, originating in the Ural Mountains and Western Siberia, settled in the Carpathian Basin and established the Principality of Hungary.

The earliest recorded concept of Europe as a cultural sphere (instead of simply a geographic term) was formed by Alcuin of York in the late 8th century during the Carolingian Renaissance, limited to the territories that practised Western Christianity at the time.

Following the Christianization of various Central European countries, elements of cultural unity emerged within the region, specifically Catholicism and Latin. Eastern Europe, with the exclusion of eastern Central Europe, remained largely Eastern Orthodox, and was dominated by Byzantine cultural influence. After the East–West Schism in 1054, it developed cultural unity and resistance to Catholic and Protestant influence within the framework of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Church Slavonic language, and the Cyrillic alphabet.

According to historian Jenő Szűcs, at the end of the first millennium Central Europe became influenced by Western European developments. Szűcs argued that between the 11th and 15th centuries, not only did Christianization influence the cultures within Central Europe, but well-defined social features were also implemented in the region based on Western characteristics. The keyword of Western social development after the turn of the millennium was the spread of Magdeburg rights in some cities and towns of Western Europe. These began to spread in the middle of the 13th century in Central European countries, bringing about self-governments of towns and counties.

In 1335, the Kings of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary and Croatia met in the castle of Visegrád and agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce, inspiring the post-Cold War Visegrád Group.

In 1386, Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, converted to Christianity (specifically Catholicism) and subsequently became King of Poland through marriage to Queen Jadwiga of Poland. This initiated the Christianization of Lithuania. It also resulted in the Union of Krewo, signifying a personal union between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. The union commenced an enduring political alliance between the two entities and laid the foundations for the later establishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569.

Between the 15th and early 16th centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia, which was at the time in personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary, served as a significant maritime gateway of Central Europe, with its ports facilitating key trade routes between Central Europe and the Mediterranean. The Republic of Ragusa emerged as a prominent hub for cultural exchange during this time. Following the Ottoman and Habsburg wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia, under Habsburg rule, began to regain its position as a significant trade route, restoring ports and revitalising commercial activity.

Before World War I

Before 1870, the industrialization that had started to develop in Northwestern and Central Europe and the United States did not extend in any significant way to the rest of the world. Even in Eastern Europe, industrialization lagged far behind. Russia, for example, remained largely rural and agricultural, and its autocratic rulers kept the peasants in serfdom. The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century, but it developed further and became an object of intensive interest towards the 20th century. However, the first concept mixed science, politics, and economy – it was strictly connected with the aspirations of German states to dominate a part of European continent called Mitteleuropa. At the Frankfurt Parliament, which was established in the wake of the March Revolution of 1848, there were multiple competing ideas for the integration of German-speaking areas, including the mitteleuropäische Lösung (Central European Solution) propagated by Austria, which sought to merge the smaller German-speaking states with the multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire, but was opposed by Prussia and others. An imperialistic idea of Mitteleuropa also became popular in the German Empire established in 1871, which experienced intensive economic growth. The term was used when the Union of German Railway Administrations established the Mitteleuropäische Eisenbahn-Zeit (Central European Railway Time) time zone, which was applied by the railways from 1 June 1891 and was later widely adopted in civilian life, thus the time zone name shortened to the present-day Central European Time.

The German term denoting Central Europe was so fashionable that other languages started referring to it when indicating territories from Rhine to Vistula, or even Dnieper, and from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans. An example of this vision of Central Europe may be seen in Joseph Partsch's book of 1903.

On 21 January 1904, Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein (Central European Economic Association) was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany and Austria (with eventual extension to Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands) as its main aim. Another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic, and cultural domination. The "bible" of the concept was Friedrich Naumann's book Mitteleuropa in which he called for an economic federation to be established after World War I. Naumann's proposed a federation with Germany and the Habsburg empire as its centre, eventually uniting all external European nations through economic prosperity. The concept failed after the German defeat in World War I. The revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era.

Interwar period
The interwar period (1918–1938) brought a new geopolitical system, as well as economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took on a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part – particularly to the countries that had (re)appeared on the map of Europe. Central Europe ceased to be the area of German aspiration to lead or dominate and became a territory of various integration movements aiming at resolving political, economic, and national problems of "new" states, being a way to face German and Soviet pressures. However, the conflict of interests was too big and neither Little Entente nor Intermarium (Międzymorze) ideas succeeded. Hungarian historian Ádám Magda wrote in her study Versailles System and Central Europe (2006): "Today we know that the bane of Central Europe was the Little Entente, military alliance of Czechoslovakia, Romania and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), created in 1921 not for Central Europe's cooperation nor to fight German expansion, but in a wrong perceived notion that a completely powerless Hungary must be kept down". The events preceding World War II in Europe—including the so-called Western betrayal/ Munich Agreement were very much enabled by the rising nationalism and ethnocentrism that typified that period.

The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe. Before World War I, it embraced mainly German-speaking states, with non-German speaking territories being an area of intended German penetration and domination – German leadership was to be the 'natural' result of economic dominance. Post-war, the Eastern part of Central Europe was placed at the centre of the concept. At that time the scientists took an interest in the idea: the International Historical Congress in Brussels in 1923 was committed to Central Europe, and the 1933 Congress continued the discussions.

According to Emmanuel de Martonne, in 1927, Central Europe encompassed Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Switzerland, northern Italy and northern Yugoslavia. The author uses both Human and Physical Geographical features to define Central Europe, but he doesn't take into account the legal development or the social, cultural, economic, and infrastructural developments in these countries.

The avant-garde movements of Central Europe contributed to the evolution of modernism, reaching its peak throughout the continent during the 1920s. The Sourcebook of Central European avantgards (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) contains primary documents of the avant-gardes in the territories of Austria, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia from 1910 to 1930.

Mitteleuropa
With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire around 1800, there was a consolidation of power among the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns as the two major states in the area. They had much in common and occasionally cooperated in various channels, but more often competed. One approach in the various attempts at cooperation, was the conception of a set of supposed common features and interests, and this idea led to the first discussions of a Mitteleuropa in the mid-nineteenth century, as espoused by Friedrich List and Karl Ludwig Bruck. These were mostly based on economic issues.

Mitteleuropa may refer to a historical concept or a contemporary German definition of Central Europe. As a historical concept, the German term Mitteleuropa (or alternatively its literal translation into English, Middle Europe) is an ambiguous German concept. It is sometimes used in English to refer to an area somewhat larger than most conceptions of 'Central Europe'. According to Fritz Fischer Mitteleuropa was a scheme in the era of the Reich of 1871–1918 by which the old imperial elites had allegedly sought to build a system of German economic, military and political domination from the northern seas to the Near East and from the Low Countries through the steppes of Russia to the Caucasus. Later on, professor Fritz Epstein argued the threat of a Slavic "Drang nach Westen" (Western expansion) had been a major factor in the emergence of a Mitteleuropa ideology before the Reich of 1871 ever came into being.

In Germany the connotation was also sometimes linked to the pre-war German provinces east of the Oder-Neisse line.

The term "Mitteleuropa" conjures up negative historical associations among some people, although the Germans have not played an exclusively negative role in the region. Most Central European Jews embraced the enlightened German humanistic culture of the 19th century. Jews of turn of the 20th century Central Europe became representatives of what many consider to be Central European culture at its best, though the Nazi conceptualisation of "Mitteleuropa" sought to destroy this culture. The term "Mitteleuropa" is widely used in German education and media without negative meaning, especially since the end of communism. Many people from the new states of Germany do not identify themselves as being part of Western Europe and therefore prefer the term "Mitteleuropa".

Central Europe during World War II
During World War II, Central Europe was largely occupied by Nazi Germany. Many areas were a battle area and were devastated. The mass murder of the Jews depopulated many of their centuries-old settlement areas or settled other people there and their culture was wiped out. Both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin diametrically opposed the centuries-old Habsburg principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages and tried to assert their own ideologies and power interests in Central Europe. There were various Allied plans for state order in Central Europe for post-war. While Stalin tried to get as many states under his control as possible, Winston Churchill preferred a Central European Danube Confederation to counter these countries against Germany and Russia. There were also plans to add Bavaria and Württemberg to an enlarged Austria. There were also various resistance movements around Otto von Habsburg that pursued this goal. The group around the Austrian priest Heinrich Maier also planned in this direction, which also successfully helped the Allies to wage war by, among other things, forwarding production sites and plans for V-2 rockets, Tiger tanks and aircraft to the USA. Otto von Habsburg tried to relieve Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and northern Yugoslavia (particularly the territories of present-day Croatia and Slovenia) from Nazi German, and Soviet, influence and control. There were various considerations to prevent German and Soviet power in Europe after the war. Churchill's idea of reaching the area around Vienna before the Russians via an operation from the Adriatic had not been approved by the Western Allied chiefs of staff. As a result of the military situation at the end of the war, Stalin's plans prevailed and much of Central Europe came under Russian control.

Central Europe behind the Iron Curtain

Following World War II, parts of Central Europe became part of the Eastern Bloc. The boundary between the two blocks was called the Iron Curtain. Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia remained neutral.

The post-World War II period brought blocking of research on Central Europe in the Eastern Bloc countries, as its every result proved the dissimilarity of Central Europe, which was inconsistent with the Stalinist doctrine. On the other hand, the topic became popular in Western Europe and the United States, much of the research being carried out by immigrants from Central Europe. Following the Fall of Communism, publicists and historians in Central Europe, especially the anti-communist opposition, returned to their research.

According to Karl A. Sinnhuber (Central Europe: Mitteleuropa: Europe Centrale: An Analysis of a Geographical Term) most Central European states were unable to preserve their political independence and became Soviet satellites. Besides Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia, only the marginal European states of Cyprus, Finland, Malta and Sweden preserved their political sovereignty to a certain degree, being left out of any military alliances in Europe.

The opening of the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer an East Germany and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. After the picnic, which was based on an idea by Otto von Habsburg to test the reaction of the USSR and Mikhail Gorbachev to an opening of the border, tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans set off for Hungary. The leadership of the GDR in East Berlin did not dare to completely block the borders of their own country and the USSR did not respond at all. This broke the bracket of the Eastern Bloc and Central Europe subsequently became free from communism.

Roles
According to American professor Ronald Tiersky, the 1991 summit held in Visegrád attended by the Czechoslovak, Hungarian and Polish presidents was hailed at the time as a major breakthrough in Central European cooperation, but the Visegrád Group became a vehicle for coordinating Central Europe's road to the European Union, while development of closer ties within the region languished.

American professor Peter J. Katzenstein described Central Europe as a way station in a Europeanization process that marks the transformation process of the Visegrád Group countries in different, though comparable ways. According to him, in Germany's contemporary public discourse "Central European identity" refers to the civilizational divide between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. He argued that there is no precise way to define Central Europe and that the region may even include Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Serbia.

Definitions

The issue of how to name and define the Central European area is subject to debates. Very often, the definition depends on the nationality and historical perspective of its author. The concept of "Central Europe" appeared in the 19th century. It was understood as a contact zone between the Southern and Northern areas, and later the Eastern and Western areas, of Europe. Thinkers portrayed "Central Europe" either as a separate region, or a buffer zone between these regions.

In the early nineteenth century, the terms "Middle" or "Central" Europe (known as "Mitteleuropa" in German and "Europe centrale" in French) were introduced in geographical scholarship in both German and French languages. At first, these terms were linked to the regions spanning from the Pyrenees to the Danube, which, according to German authors, could be united under German authority. However, after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, the French began to exclude France from this area, and later the Germans also adopted this perspective by the end of World War I.

The concept of "Central" or "Middle Europe", understood as a region with German influence, lost a significant part of its popularity after WWI and was completely dismissed after WWII. Two defeats of Germany in the world wars, combined with the division of Germany, an almost complete disappearance of German-speaking communities in these countries, and the Communist-led isolation of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Yugoslavia from the Western world, turned the concept of "Central/Middle Europe" into an anachronism. On the other side, the non-German areas of Central Europe were almost universally regarded as "Eastern European" primarily associated with the Soviet sphere of influence in the late 1940s–1980s.

For the most part, this geographical framework lost its attraction after the end of the Cold War. A number of Post-Communist countries rather re-branded themselves in the 1990s as "Central European.", while avoiding the stained wording of "Middle Europe," which they associated with German influence in the region. This reinvented concept of "Central Europe" excluded Germany, Austria and Switzerland, reducing its coverage chiefly to Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Yugoslavia.

Academic
The main proposed regional definitions, gathered by Polish historian Jerzy Kłoczowski, include:

 * West-Central and East-Central Europe – this conception, presented in 1950, distinguishes two regions in Central Europe: German West-Centre, with imperial tradition of the Reich, and the East-Centre covered by variety of nations from Finland to Greece, placed between great empires of Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union.
 * Central Europe as the area of cultural heritage of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth – Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian historians, in cooperation (since 1990) with Polish historians, insist on the importance of the concept.
 * Central Europe as a region connected to the Western civilisation since the foundation of the local states and churches, including countries such as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kingdom of Croatia, Holy Roman Empire, later German Empire and the Habsburg monarchy, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Crown of Bohemia. Central Europe understood in this way borders on Russia and South-Eastern Europe, but the exact frontier of the region is difficult to determine.

 * Central Europe as the area of the former Habsburg Empire – a concept which is popular in regions along the river Danube: Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia, large parts of Bosnia, Croatia and Romania. Also, smaller parts of Poland, Serbia and Ukraine.
 * A concept underlining the links connecting Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine with Russia and treating the Russian Empire together with the whole Slavic Orthodox population as one entity – this position is taken by the Russian historiography..
 * A concept putting the accent on links with the West, especially from the 19th century and the grand period of liberation and formation of Nation-states – this idea is represented by the South-Eastern states, which prefer the enlarged concept of the "East Centre" expressing their links with Western culture.

Former University of Vienna professor Lonnie R. Johnson points out criteria to distinguish Central Europe from Western, Northern, Eastern and Southern Europe:

 * One criterion for defining Central Europe is the frontiers of medieval empires and kingdoms that largely correspond to the religious frontiers between the Catholic West and the Orthodox East. The pagans of Central Europe were converted to Catholicism while in Southeastern and Eastern Europe they were brought into the fold of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
 * Multinational empires were a characteristic of Central Europe. Hungary and Poland, small and medium-size states today, were empires during their early histories. The historical Kingdom of Hungary was until 1918 three times larger than present-day Hungary, while Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the largest state in Europe in the 16th century. Both these kingdoms housed a wide variety of different peoples.

He also thinks that Central Europe is a dynamic historical concept, not a static spatial one. For example, a fair share of Belarus and western Ukraine are in Eastern Europe today, but years ago they were in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Johnson's study on Central Europe received acclaim and positive reviews in the scientific community. However, according to Romanian researcher Maria Bucur this very ambitious project suffers from the weaknesses imposed by its scope (almost 1600 years of history).

Encyclopedias, gazetteers, dictionaries
The World Factbook defines Central Europe as: Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. The Columbia Encyclopedia includes: Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland. While it does not have a single article defining Central Europe, Encyclopædia Britannica includes the following countries in Central Europe in one or more of its articles: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

The German Encyclopaedia Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon (Meyers Big Pocket Encyclopedia), 1999, defines Central Europe as the central part of Europe with no precise borders to the East and West. The term is mostly used to denominate the territory between the Schelde to Vistula and from the Danube to the Moravian Gate.

According to Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon, Central Europe is a part of Europe composed of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Switzerland, and northern marginal regions of Italy and Yugoslavia (northern states – Croatia and Slovenia), as well as northeastern France.

The German Ständige Ausschuss für geographische Namen (Standing Committee on Geographical Names), which develops and recommends rules for the uniform use of geographical names, proposes two sets of boundaries. The first follows international borders of current countries. The second subdivides and includes some countries based on cultural criteria. In comparison to some other definitions, it is broader, including Luxembourg, Estonia, Latvia, and in the second sense, parts of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Italy, and France.

Geographical
There is no general agreement either on what geographic area constitutes Central Europe, nor on how to further subdivide it geographically.

At times, the term "Central Europe" denotes a geographic definition as the Danube region in the heart of the continent, including the language and culture areas which are today included in the states of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and usually also Austria and Germany.

Governmental and standards organisations
The terminology EU11 countries refer the Central, Eastern and Baltic European member states which accessed in 2004 and after: in 2004 Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia; in 2007 Bulgaria, Romania; and in 2013 Croatia.

States
European_Regions_EuroVoc.png{{legend|#FF0000|Central and Eastern Europe}}{{legend|#67E863|Western Europe}}{{legend|#F6D600|Southern Europe}}{{legend|#0076D3|Northern Europe}}

]] The choice of states that make up Central Europe is an ongoing source of controversy. Although views on which countries belong to Central Europe are vastly varied, according to many sources (see section Definitions) the region includes some or all of the states listed in the sections below:

 * Austria
 * Croatia
 * Czech Republic
 * Germany
 * Hungary
 * Lithuania
 * Poland
 * Slovakia
 * Slovenia
 * Switzerland
 * Serbia

Depending on the context, Central European countries are sometimes not seen as a specific group, but sorted as either Eastern or Western European countries. In this case Austria, Germany and Switzerland are often placed in Western Europe, while Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia are placed in Eastern Europe.

Croatia is alternatively placed in Southeastern Europe. Additionally, Hungary   and Slovenia    are sometimes included in the region.

Lithuania is alternatively placed in Northeastern Europe. Europe_subregion_map_UN_geoscheme.svg{{legend|#FF8080|Eastern Europe }}{{legend|#4080FF|Northern Europe}}{{legend|#00FF00|Southern Europe}}{{legend|#00FFFF|Western Europe}}

]]

Other countries and regions
Some sources also add regions of neighbouring countries for historical reasons, or based on geographical and/or cultural reasons:

 * Bosnia and Herzegovina (as a former part of the Habsburg monarchy, placed in Southern or Southeast Europe)
 * Estonia (considered to have been part of 'Mitteleuropa', alternatively placed in Eastern, Northeastern or Northern Europe)
 * Italy (South Tyrol, Trentino, Trieste and Gorizia, Friuli, Lombardy, and Veneto or all of Northern Italy)
 * Latvia (considered to have been part of 'Mitteleuropa')
 * Romania (Transylvania, along with Banat, Crișana, Maramureș, Bukovina  and Muntenia along with Oltenia )
 * Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast)
 * Serbia (primarily Vojvodina and Northern Belgrade, alternatively placed in Southeast Europe)
 * Ukraine (Transcarpathia, Galicia and Northern Bukovina )

Geography

Geography defines Central Europe's natural borders with the neighbouring regions to the north across the Baltic Sea, namely Northern Europe (or Scandinavia), and to the south across the Alps, the Apennine peninsula (or Italy), and the Balkan peninsula across the Soča–Krka–Sava–Danube line. The borders to Western Europe and Eastern Europe are geographically less defined, and for this reason the cultural and historical boundaries migrate more easily west–east than south–north. The river Rhine, which runs south–north through Western Germany, is an exception.

Southwards, the Pannonian Plain is bounded by the rivers Sava and Danube – and their respective floodplains. The Pannonian Plain stretches over the following countries: Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, and touches borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine ("peri- Pannonian states").

South of the Eastern Alps (spanning Austria, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland), the Dinaric Alps extend for 650 kilometres along the coast of the Adriatic Sea (northwest-southeast), from the Julian Alps in the northwest down to the Šar-Korab massif, north–south. According to the Freie Universität Berlin, this mountain chain is classified as South Central European. The city of Trieste in this area, for example, expressly sees itself as a città mitteleuropea. This is particularly because it lies at the interface between the Latin, Slavic, Germanic, Greek and Jewish culture on the one hand and the geographical area of the Mediterranean and the Alps on the other. A geographical and cultural assignment is made.

The Central European flora region stretches from Central France (the Massif Central) to the Northern Balkans, Central Romania (Carpathians) and Southern Scandinavia.

Demography

Central Europe is one of the continent's most populous regions. It includes countries of varied sizes, ranging from tiny Liechtenstein to Germany, the second largest European country by population. Demographic figures for countries entirely located within notion of Central Europe ("the core countries") number around 173 million people, out of which around 82 million are residents of Germany. Other populations include: Poland with around 38.5 million residents, Czech Republic at 10.5 million, Hungary at 10 million, Austria with 8.8 million, Switzerland with 8.5 million, Slovakia at 5.4 million, Croatia with 4.3 million, Lithuania with 2.9 million, Slovenia with 2.1 million and Liechtenstein at a bit less than 40,000.

If the countries which are sometimes also included in Central Europe were counted in, partially or in whole – Romania (20 million), Latvia (2 million), Estonia (1.3 million), Serbia (7.1 million) – this would contribute around an additional 30.4 million, although this figure would vary depending on whether a regional or integral approach is used. If smaller, western and eastern historical parts of Central Europe would be included in the demographic corpus, a further 20 million people of different nationalities would also be added in the overall count, surpassing a total of 200 million people.

Currencies
Currently, the members of the Eurozone include Austria, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland use their own currencies (koruna, forint, Polish złoty, respectively), but are obliged to adopt the Euro. Switzerland uses its own currency (Swiss franc), as does Serbia (dinar) and Romania (Romanian leu).

Human Development Index
[[File:2013 UN Human Development Report Quartiles.svg|upright=1.35|thumb|World map by quartiles of Human Development Index in 2013:

In 2018, Switzerland topped the HDI list among Central European countries, also ranking No. 2 in the world. Serbia rounded out the list at No. 11 (67 world).

Globalisation

The index of globalization in Central European countries (2016 data): Switzerland topped this list as well (#1 world).

Prosperity Index
Legatum Prosperity Index demonstrates an average and high level of prosperity in Central Europe (2018 data). Switzerland topped the index (#4 world).

Corruption

Most countries in Central Europe tend to score above the average in the Corruption Perceptions Index (2018 data), led by Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.

Rail

Central Europe contains the continent's earliest railway systems, whose greatest expansion was recorded in Austrian, Czech, German, Hungarian and Swiss territories between 1860-1870s. By the mid-19th century Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Pest and Prague were focal points for network lines connecting industrial areas of Saxony, Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia and Lower Austria with the Baltic (Kiel, Szczecin) and Adriatic (Rijeka, Trieste). By 1913, the combined length of the railway tracks of Austria and Hungary reached 43280 km. By 1936, 70% of the Swiss Federal Railway network had undergone electrification.

Rail infrastructure in Central Europe remains the densest in the world. Railway density as of 2022, with total length of lines operated (km) per 1,000 km2, from highest to lowest is Switzerland (129.2), the Czech Republic (120.7), Germany (108.8), Hungary (85.0), Slovakia (74.0), Austria (66.5), Poland (61.9), Slovenia (59.6), Serbia (49.2), Croatia (46.3) and Lithuania (29.4).

River transport and canals
Before the first railroads appeared in the 1840s, river transport constituted the main means of communication and trade. Earliest canals included Plauen Canal (1745), Finow Canal, and also Bega Canal (1710) which connected Timișoara to Novi Sad and Belgrade via the Danube. The most significant achievement in this regard was the facilitation of navigability on the Danube from the Black sea to Ulm in the 19th century.

The economies of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland tend to demonstrate high complexity. Industrialisation reached Central Europe relatively early beginning with Germany and the Czech lands near the end of the 18th century.

The industrialization of the cities of Romania and Serbia started in the interwar period, and did not make significant progress until the post ww2 era.

Agriculture
Central European countries are some of the most significant food producers in the world. Germany is the world's largest hops producer with 34.27% share in 2010, 3rd largest producer of rye and barley, 5th rapeseed producer, 6th largest milk producer, and 5th largest potato producer. Poland is the world's largest triticale producer, 2nd largest producer of raspberries, currants, 3rd largest of rye, the 5th apple and buckwheat producer, and 7th largest producer of potatoes. The Czech Republic is the world's 4th largest hops producer and 8th producer of triticale. Slovenia is one of the world's leading producers of honey and the world's 6th largest hops producer. Hungary is world's 5th hops and 7th largest triticale producer. Serbia is the world's 2nd largest producer of plums and 2nd largest producer of raspberries.

Business
Central European business has a regional organisation, Central European Business Association (CEBA), founded in 1996 in New York as a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting business opportunities within Central Europe and supporting the advancement of professionals in America with a Central European background.

Tourism
Central European countries, especially Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland are some of the most competitive tourism destinations.

Education performance
Student performance has varied across Central Europe, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment. In the 2012 study, countries scored medium, below or over the average scores in three fields studied.

Universities
The first university established east of France and north of the Alps was in Prague in 1348 by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The Charles University was modeled upon the University of Paris and initially included the faculty of law, medicine, philosophy, and theology.

Central European University

In 1991, Ernest Gellner proposed the establishment of a truly Central European institution of higher learning in Prague (1991–1995). Eventually, the Central European University (CEU) project was taken on and financially supported by the Hungarian philanthropist George Soros, who had provided an endowment of US$880 million, making the university one of the wealthiest in Europe. Over its 30-year history CEU has become one of the most internationally diverse and recognisable universities in the world. For example, as of 2019, 1217 students were enrolled in the university, of which 962 were international students, making the student body the fourth most international in the world. CEU offers highly selective programs with a student to faculty ratio of 7:1. In 2021, the admission rate into its programs was 13%. CEU has thus become a leading global university in Europe promoting a distinctively Central European perspective while emphasizing academic rigor, applied research, and academic honesty and integrity. CEU is a founding member of CIVICCA, a group of prestigious European higher education institutions in the social sciences, humanities, business management and public policy, such as Sciences Po (France), The London School of Economics and Political Science (UK), Bocconi University (Italy) and the Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden). In 2019, Central European University leadership announced their preparatory work on moving CEU to Vienna due to legal constraints against academic freedom in Hungary.

Research
Research centres of Central European literature include Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Purdue University, and Central European Studies Programme (CESP), Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

Religion
Central European countries are mostly Catholic (Austria, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) or historically both Catholic and Protestant (the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland). Large Protestant groups include Lutheran, Calvinist, and the Unity of the Brethren affiliates. Significant populations of Eastern Catholicism and Old Catholicism are also prevalent throughout Central Europe. Orthodox Christianity is a minority denomination observed to varying extents across Central Europe.

Central Europe has been the center of the Protestant movement for centuries, with the majority of Protestants suppressed and annihilated during the Counterreformation.

Historically, people in Bohemia in today's Czech Republic were some of the first Protestants in Europe. As a result of the Thirty Years' War following the Bohemian Revolt, many Czechs were either killed, executed (see for Old Town Square execution), forcibly turned into Roman Catholics, or emigrated to Scandinavia and the Low Countries. In the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War, the number of inhabitants in the Kingdom of Bohemia decreased from three million to only 800,000 due to multiple factors, including devastating ongoing battles such as the significant Battle of White Mountain and the Battle of Prague (1648). However, in recent years, most Czechs report as overwhelmingly non-religious, with some describing themselves as Catholic (10.3%).

Before the Holocaust (1941–45), there was also a sizeable Ashkenazi Jewish community in the region, numbering approximately 16.7 million people. Poland, Lithuania and Hungary had the largest Jewish populations in Europe as a percentage of their total populations, with Jews constituting 9.5% of the Polish population in 1933.

Certain countries in Central Europe, particularly the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland have sizeable atheist and non-religious populations. In 2021, 48% of the Czech population declared that they had no religion. In 2022, 43.8% of the German population declared that they had no religion. Meanwhile, 33.5% of the Swiss population stated that they were not affiliated with any religion.

Cuisine
Central European cuisine has evolved over centuries due to social and political change and is generally diverse. However, the national cuisines of western Central Europe share notable similarities, as do the cuisines of eastern Central Europe. Sausages, salamis and cheeses are popular in most of Central Europe, with the earliest evidence of cheesemaking in the archaeological record dates back to 5,500 BCE (Kuyavia region, Poland). Other popular food items in Central Europe include soups, stews, pickled and fermented vegetables. Schnitzel, goulash and cabbage rolls are popular in the region.

Another common feature among Central European cuisines, particularly Austrian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Slovenian and Swiss cuisine, is the use of wild ingredients in traditional dishes, spanning from wild herbs to mushrooms and berries. Beer consumption is also prominent in parts of Central Europe, where the Czech Republic has the highest beer consumption per capita globally, followed by Austria, with Germany coming 4th. The cuisines of Central European countries that are included in broader definitions of Eastern Europe share similarities and traditions with other Eastern European cuisines. This is particularly evident in the cuisines of Lithuania and Poland, which feature dishes like borscht, pierogi and sour rye soup.

Human rights
Generally, the countries in the region have been progressive on the issue of human rights: death penalty is illegal in all of them, corporal punishment is outlawed in most of them and people of both genders can vote in elections. However, Central European countries are divided on the subject of same-sex marriage and abortion. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland also have a history of participation in the CIA's extraordinary rendition and detention program, according to the Open Society Foundations.

Literature
Regional writing tradition revolves around the turbulent history of the region, as well as its cultural diversity. Its existence is sometimes challenged. Specific courses on Central European literature are taught at Stanford University, Harvard University and Jagiellonian University as well as cultural magazines dedicated to regional literature. Angelus Central European Literature Award is an award worth 150,000.00 PLN (about $50,000 or £30,000) for writers originating from the region. Likewise, the Vilenica International Literary Prize is awarded to a Central European author for "outstanding achievements in the field of literature and essay writing".

Sport
There is a number of Central European Sport events and leagues. They include:

 * Central European Tour Miskolc GP (Hungary)*
 * Central European Tour Budapest GP (Hungary)
 * 2008 Central Europe Rally (Romania and Hungary)*
 * 2023 Central Europe Rally (Germany, Austria and Czech Republic)
 * Central European Football League (Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey)
 * Central European International Cup (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and Yugoslavia; 1927–1960)
 * Central Europe Throwdown*

Football is one of the most popular sports. Countries of Central Europe hosted several major competitions. Germany hosted two FIFA World Cups (1974 and 2006) and the UEFA Euro 1988. Yugoslavia hosted the UEFA Euro 1976 before the competition expanded to 8 teams. Recently, the 2008 and 2012 UEFA European Championships were held in Austria & Switzerland and Poland & Ukraine respectively. The UEFA Euro 2024 will be hosted by Germany.

Organisations
Central Europe is a birthplace of regional political organisations:

 * Central European Defence Cooperation
 * Central European Free Trade Agreement
 * Central European Initiative
 * Centrope
 * Middleeuropean Initiative
 * Three Seas Initiative
 * Visegrád Group

Democracy Index

Central Europe is a home to some of world's oldest democracies. However, most of them have been impacted by totalitarianism, particularly Fascism and Nazism. Germany and Italy occupied all Central European countries, except Switzerland. In all occupied countries, the Axis powers suspended democracy and installed puppet regimes loyal to the occupation forces. Also, they forced conquered countries to apply racial laws and formed military forces for helping German and Italian struggle against Communists. After World War II, almost the whole of Central Europe (the Eastern and Middle part) had been transformed into communist states, most of which had been occupied and later allied with the Soviet Union, often against their will through forged referendum (e.g., Polish people's referendum in 1946) or force (northeast Germany, Poland, Hungary et alia). Nevertheless, these experiences have been dealt in most of them. Most of Central European countries score very highly in the Democracy Index.

Global Peace Index

In spite of its turbulent history, Central Europe is currently one of world's safest regions. Most Central European countries are in top 20%.

Central European Time

The time zone is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. Countries using CET include:
 * Albania
 * Andorra
 * Austria
 * Belgium
 * Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * Croatia
 * Czech Republic
 * Denmark
 * France
 * Germany
 * Hungary
 * Italy
 * Luxembourg
 * Monaco
 * Montenegro
 * Netherlands
 * North Macedonia
 * Norway
 * Poland
 * San Marino
 * Slovakia
 * Slovenia
 * Serbia
 * Sweden
 * Switzerland
 * Vatican City

In popular culture
Central Europe is mentioned in the 35th episode of Lovejoy, entitled "The Prague Sun", filmed in 1992. While walking over the well-regarded and renowned Charles Bridge in Prague, the main character, Lovejoy, says: "I've never been to Prague before. Well, it is one of the great unspoiled cities in Central Europe. Notice: I said: 'Central', not 'Eastern'! The Czechs are a bit funny about that, they think of Eastern Europeans as turnip heads."

Wes Anderson's Oscar-winning film The Grand Budapest Hotel depicts a fictional grand hotel located somewhere in Central Europe which is in actuality modeled on the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. The film is a celebration of the 1920s and 1930s Central Europe with its artistic splendor and societal sensibilities.

General and cited references

 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015
 * Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015

title: Central Europe


text:
Geography of Canada

Canada has a vast geography that occupies much of the continent of North America, sharing a land border with the contiguous United States to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean. Greenland is to the northeast with a shared border on Hans Island. To the southeast Canada shares a maritime boundary with France's overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the last vestige of New France. By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia. By land area alone, however, Canada ranks fourth, the difference being due to it having the world's largest proportion of fresh water lakes. Of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories, only two are landlocked (Alberta and Saskatchewan) while the other eleven all directly border one of three oceans.

Canada is home to the world's northernmost settlement, Canadian Forces Station Alert, on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island—latitude 82.5°N—which lies 817 km from the North Pole. Much of the Canadian Arctic is covered by ice and permafrost. Canada has the longest coastline in the world, with a total length of 243042 km; additionally, its border with the United States is the world's longest land border, stretching 8891 km. Three of Canada's Arctic islands, Baffin Island, Victoria Island and Ellesmere Island, are among the ten largest in the world.

Canada can be divided into seven physiographic regions: the Canadian Shield, the interior plains, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands, the Appalachian region, the Western Cordillera, Hudson Bay Lowlands and the Arctic Archipelago. Canada is also divided into fifteen terrestrial and five marine ecozones, encompassing over 80,000 classified species of life. Since the end of the last glacial period, Canada has consisted of eight distinct forest regions, including extensive boreal forest on the Canadian Shield; 42 percent of the land acreage of Canada is covered by forests (approximately 8 percent of the world's forested land), made up mostly of spruce, poplar and pine. Canada has over 2,000,000 lakes—563 greater than 100 km2—which is more than any other country, containing much of the world's fresh water. There are also freshwater glaciers in the Canadian Rockies, the Coast Mountains and the Arctic Cordillera. A recent global remote sensing analysis also suggested that there were 6,477 km2 of tidal flats in Canada, making it the 5th ranked country in terms of how much tidal flat occurs there. Protected areas of Canada and National Wildlife Areas have been established to preserve ecosystems.

Canada is geologically active, having many earthquakes and potentially active volcanoes, notably the Mount Meager massif, Mount Garibaldi, Mount Cayley, and the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada range from Arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

Physiography
Canada covers 9984670 km2 and a panoply of various geoclimatic regions, of which there are seven main regions. Canada also encompasses vast maritime terrain, with the world's longest coastline of 243042 km. The physical geography of Canada is widely varied. Boreal forests prevail throughout the country, ice is prominent in northerly Arctic regions and through the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and the relatively flat Canadian Prairies in the southwest facilitate productive agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population.

The National Topographic System is used by Natural Resources Canada for providing general purpose topographic maps of the country. The maps provide details on landforms and terrain, lakes and rivers, forested areas, administrative zones, populated areas, roads and railways, as well as other man-made features. These maps are used by all levels of government and industry for forest fire and flood control (as well as other environmental issues), depiction of crop areas, right-of-way, real estate planning, development of natural resources and highway planning.

Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian mountain range extends from Alabama in southern United States through the Gaspé Peninsula and the Atlantic Provinces, creating rolling hills indented by river valleys. It also runs through parts of southern Quebec.

The Appalachian Mountains (more specifically the Chic-Choc, Notre Dame, and Long Range Mountains) are an old and eroded range of mountains, approximately 380 million years in age. Notable mountains in the Appalachians include Mount Jacques-Cartier (Quebec, 1268 m), Mount Carleton (New Brunswick, 817 m), The Cabox (Newfoundland, 814 m). Parts of the Appalachians are home to a rich endemic flora and fauna and are considered to have been nunataks during the last glaciation era.

Canadian Shield
The northeastern part of Alberta, northern parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, all of Labrador and the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, eastern mainland Northwest Territories, most of Nunavut's mainland and, of its Arctic Archipelago, Baffin Island and significant bands through Somerset, Southampton, Devon and Ellesmere islands are located on a vast rock base known as the Canadian Shield. The Shield mostly consists of eroded hilly terrain and contains many lakes and important rivers used for hydroelectric production, particularly in northern Quebec and Ontario. The Shield also encloses an area of wetlands around the Hudson Bay. Some particular regions of the Shield are referred to as mountain ranges, including the Torngat and Laurentian Mountains.

The Shield cannot support intensive agriculture, although there is subsistence agriculture and small dairy farms in many of the river valleys and around the abundant lakes, particularly in the southern regions. Boreal forest covers much of the shield, with a mix of conifers that provide valuable timber resources in areas such as the Central Canadian Shield forests ecoregion that covers much of Northern Ontario.

The Canadian Shield is known for its vast mineral reserves such as emeralds, diamonds and copper, and is there also called the "mineral house".

Canadian Arctic
While the largest part of the Canadian Arctic is composed of seemingly endless permafrost and tundra north of the tree line, it encompasses geological regions of varying types: the Arctic Cordillera (with the British Empire Range and the United States Range on Ellesmere Island) contains the northernmost mountain system in the world. The Arctic Lowlands and Hudson Bay lowlands comprise a substantial part of the geographic region often designated as the Canadian Shield (in contrast to the sole geologic area). The ground in the Arctic is mostly composed of permafrost, making construction difficult and often hazardous, and agriculture virtually impossible.

The Arctic, when defined as everything north of the tree line, covers most of Nunavut and the northernmost parts of Northwest Territories, Yukon, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Labrador. The archipelago consists of 36,563 islands, of which 94 are classified as major islands, being larger than 130 km2, and cover a total area of 1400000 km2.

Western Cordillera
The Coast Mountains in British Columbia run from the lower Fraser River and the Fraser Canyon northwestward, separating the Interior Plateau from the Pacific Ocean. Its southeastern end is separated from the North Cascades by the Fraser Lowland, where nearly a third of Western Canada's population reside.

The coastal flank of the Coast Mountains is characterized by an intense network of fjords and associated islands, very similar to the Norwegian coastline in Northern Europe; while their inland side transitions to the high plateau with dryland valleys notable for a series of large alpine lakes similar to those in southern Switzerland, beginning in deep mountains and ending in flatland. They are subdivided in three main groups, the Pacific Ranges between the Fraser River and Bella Coola, the Kitimat Ranges from there northwards to the Nass River, and the Boundary Ranges from there to the mountain terminus in Yukon at Champagne Pass and Chilkat Pass northwest of Haines, Alaska. The Saint Elias Mountains lie to their west and northwest, while the Yukon Ranges and Yukon Basin lie to their north. On the inland side of the Boundary Ranges are the Tahltan and Tagish Highlands and also the Skeena Mountains, part of the Interior Mountains system, which also extend southwards on the inland side of the Kitimat Ranges.

The terrain of the main spine of the Coast Mountains is typified by heavy glaciation, including several very large icefields of varying elevation. Of the three subdivisions, the Pacific Ranges are the highest and are crowned by Mount Waddington, while the Boundary Ranges contain the largest icefields, the Juneau Icefield being the largest. The Kitimat Ranges are lower and less glacier-covered than either of the other two groupings, but are extremely rugged and dense.

The Coast Mountains are made of igneous and metamorphic rock from an episode of arc volcanism related to subduction of the Kula and Farallon Plates during the Laramide orogeny about 100 million years ago. The widespread granite forming the Coast Mountains formed when magma intruded and cooled at depth beneath volcanoes of the Coast Range Arc whereas the metamorphic formed when intruding magma heated the surrounding rock to produce schist.

The Insular Mountains extend from Vancouver Island in the south to the Haida Gwaii in the north on the British Columbia Coast. It contains two main mountain ranges, the Vancouver Island Ranges on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Mountains on Haida Gwaii.

Extreme points
The northernmost point of land within the boundaries of Canada is Cape Columbia, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut 83.111°N, -69.972°W. The northernmost point of the Canadian mainland is Zenith Point on Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut 72.002°N, -94.655°W. The southernmost point is Middle Island, in Lake Erie, Ontario (41°41′N 82°40′W); the southernmost water point lies just south of the island, on the Ontario–Ohio border (41°40′35″N). The southernmost point of the Canadian mainland is Point Pelee, Ontario 41.909°N, -82.509°W. The lowest point is sea level at 0 m, whilst the highest point is Mount Logan, Yukon, at 5,959 m / 19,550 ft 60.567°N, -140.405°W. The westernmost point is Boundary Peak 187 (60°18′22.929″N 141°00′7.128″W) at the southern end of the Yukon–Alaska border, which roughly follows 141°W but leans very slightly east as it goes North 60.301°N, -141.01°W. The easternmost point is Cape Spear, Newfoundland (47°31′N 52°37′W) 47.523°N, -52.619°W. The easternmost point of the Canadian mainland is Elijah Point, Cape St. Charles, Labrador (52°13′N 55°37′W) 52.217°N, -55.621°W.

The Canadian pole of inaccessibility is allegedly near Jackfish River, Alberta (59°2′N 112°49′W). The furthest straight-line distance that can be travelled to Canadian points of land is between the southwest tip of Kluane National Park and Reserve (next to Mount Saint Elias) and Cripple Cove, Newfoundland (near Cape Race) at a distance of 3005.60 nmi.

Climatology

Climate varies widely from region to region. Winters can be harsh in many parts of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces, which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near -15 C, but can drop below -40 °C with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground for almost six months of the year, while in parts of the north snow can persist year-round. Coastal British Columbia has a temperate climate, with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coasts, average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s °C (70s °F), while between the coasts, the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 C, with temperatures in some interior locations occasionally exceeding 40 °C.

Much of Northern Canada is covered by ice and permafrost; however, the future of the permafrost is uncertain because the Arctic has been warming at three times the global average as a result of climate change in Canada. Canada's annual average temperature over land has warmed by 1.7 C-change, with changes ranging from 1.1 to 2.3 C-change in various regions, since 1948. The rate of warming has been higher across the North and in the Prairies. In the southern regions of Canada, air pollution from both Canada and the United States—caused by metal smelting, burning coal to power utilities, and vehicle emissions—has resulted in acid rain, which has severely impacted waterways, forest growth and agricultural productivity in Canada.

Biogeography
Canada is divided into fifteen major terrestrial and five marine ecozones, that are further subdivided into 53 ecoprovinces, 194 ecoregions, and 1,027 ecodistricts. These eco-areas encompass over 80,000 classified species of Canadian wildlife, with an equal number yet to be formally recognized or discovered. Due to pollution, loss of biodiversity, over-exploitation of commercial species, invasive species, and habitat loss, there are currently more than 800 wild life species at risk of being lost.

Canada's major biomes are the tundra, boreal forest, grassland, and temperate deciduous forest. British Columbia contains several smaller biomes, including; mountain forest which extends to Alberta, and a small temperate rainforest along the Pacific coast, the semi arid desert located in the Okanagan and alpine tundra in the higher mountainous regions.

Over half of Canada's landscape is intact and relatively free of human development. Approximately half of Canada is covered by forest, totaling around 2.4 sqkm. The boreal forest of Canada is considered to be the largest intact forest on Earth, with around 3,000,00 km2 undisturbed by roads, cities or industry. The Canadian Arctic tundra is the second-largest vegetation region in the country consisting of dwarf shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses and lichens.

Approximately 12.1 percent of the nation's landmass and freshwater are conservation areas, including 11.4 percent designated as protected areas. Approximately 13.8 percent of its territorial waters are conserved, including 8.9 percent designated as protected areas.

Hydrography
Canada holds vast reserves of water: its rivers discharge nearly 7% of the world's renewable water supply, Canada has over 2,000,000 lakes—563 greater than 100 km2—which is more than any other country and has the third largest amount of glacier water. Canada is also home to about twenty five percent (134.6 million ha) of the world's wetlands that support a vast array of local ecosystems.

Canada's waterways host forty-seven rivers of at least 600 km in length, with the two longest being the Mackenzie River, that begins at Great Slave Lake and ends in the Arctic Ocean, with its drainage basin covering a large part of northwestern Canada, and the Saint Lawrence River, which drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf of St. Lawrence ending in the Atlantic Ocean. The Mackenzie, including its tributaries is over 4200 km in length and lies within the second largest drainage basin of North America, while the St. Lawrence 3058 km in length, drains the world's largest system of freshwater lakes.

The Atlantic watershed drains the entirety of the Atlantic provinces (parts of the Quebec-Labrador border are fixed at the Atlantic Ocean-Arctic Ocean continental divide), most of inhabited Quebec and large parts of southern Ontario. It is mostly drained by the economically important St. Lawrence River and its tributaries, notably the Saguenay, Manicouagan, and Ottawa rivers. The Great Lakes and Lake Nipigon are also drained by the St. Lawrence. The Churchill River and Saint John River are other important elements of the Atlantic watershed in Canada. The Hudson Bay watershed drains over a third of Canada. It covers Manitoba, northern Ontario and Quebec, most of Saskatchewan, southern Alberta, southwestern Nunavut, and the southern half of Baffin Island. This basin is most important in fighting drought in the prairies and producing hydroelectricity, especially in Manitoba, northern Ontario and Quebec. Major elements of this watershed include Lake Winnipeg, Nelson River, the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers, Assiniboine River, and Nettilling Lake on Baffin Island. Wollaston Lake lies on the boundary between the Hudson Bay and Arctic Ocean watersheds and drains into both. It is the largest lake in the world that naturally drains in two directions.

The continental divide in the Rockies separates the Pacific watershed in British Columbia and Yukon from the Arctic and Hudson Bay watersheds. This watershed irrigates the agriculturally important areas of inner British Columbia (such as the Okanagan and Kootenay valleys), and is used to produce hydroelectricity. Major elements are the Yukon, Columbia and Fraser rivers.

The northern parts of Alberta, Manitoba, and British Columbia, most of Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and parts of Yukon are drained by the Arctic watershed. This watershed has been little used for hydroelectricity, with the exception of the Mackenzie River. The Peace, Athabasca and Liard Rivers, as well as Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake (respectively the largest and second largest lakes wholly enclosed by Canada) are significant elements of the Arctic watershed. Each of these elements eventually merges with the Mackenzie, thereby draining the vast majority of the Arctic watershed.

The southernmost part of Alberta drains into the Gulf of Mexico through the Milk River and its tributaries. The Milk River originates in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, then flows into Alberta, then returns into the United States, where it is drained by the Missouri River. A small area of southwestern Saskatchewan is drained by Battle Creek, which empties into the Milk River.

Natural resources
Canada's abundance of natural resources is reflected in their continued importance in the economy of Canada. Major resource-based industries are fisheries, forestry, agriculture, petroleum products and mining.

The fisheries industry has historically been one of Canada's strongest. Unmatched cod stocks on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland launched this industry in the 16th century. Today these stocks are nearly depleted, and their conservation has become a preoccupation of the Atlantic Provinces. On the West Coast, tuna stocks are now restricted. The less depleted (but still greatly diminished) salmon population continues to drive a strong fisheries industry. Canada claims 12 nmi of territorial sea, a contiguous zone of 24 nmi, an exclusive economic zone of 5599077 km2 with 200 nmi and a continental shelf of 200 nmi or to the edge of the continental margin.

Five per cent of Canada's land area is arable, none of which is for permanent crops. Three per cent of Canada's land area is covered by permanent pastures. Canada has 7,200 km2 of irrigated land (1993 estimate). Agricultural regions in Canada include the Canadian Prairies, the Lower Mainland and various regions within the Interior of British Columbia, the St. Lawrence Basin and the Canadian Maritimes. Main crops in Canada include flax, oats, wheat, maize, barley, sugar beets and rye in the prairies; flax and maize in Western Ontario; Oats and potatoes in the Maritimes. Fruit and vegetables are grown primarily in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Southwestern Ontario, the Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, along the south coast of Georgian Bay and in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Cattle and sheep are raised in the valleys and plateaus of British Columbia. Cattle, sheep and hogs are raised on the prairies, cattle and hogs in Western Ontario, sheep and hogs in Quebec, and sheep in the Maritimes. There are significant dairy regions in central Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, the St. Lawrence Valley, northeastern Ontario, southwestern Ontario, the Red River valley of Manitoba and the valleys in the British Columbia Interior, on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland.

Fossil fuels are a more recently developed resource in Canada, with oil and gas being extracted from deposits in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin since the mid-1900s. While Canada's crude oil deposits are fewer, technological developments in recent decades have opened up oil production in Alberta's Oil Sands to the point where Canada now has some of the largest reserves of oil in the world. In other forms, Canadian industry has a long history of extracting large coal and natural gas reserves.

Canada's mineral resources are diverse and extensive. Across the Canadian Shield and in the north there are large iron, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, and uranium reserves. Large diamond concentrations have been recently developed in the Arctic, making Canada one of the world's largest producers. Throughout the Shield there are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and best known, is Sudbury, Ontario. Sudbury is an exception to the normal process of forming minerals in the Shield since there is significant evidence that the Sudbury Basin is an ancient meteorite impact crater. The nearby, but less known Temagami Magnetic Anomaly has striking similarities to the Sudbury Basin. Its magnetic anomalies are very similar to the Sudbury Basin, and so it could be a second metal-rich impact crater. The Shield is also covered by vast boreal forests that support an important logging industry.

Canada's many rivers have afforded extensive development of hydroelectric power. Extensively developed in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Labrador, the many dams have long provided a clean, dependable source of energy.

Environmental issues

Air pollution and resulting acid rain severely affects lakes and damages forests. Metal smelting, coal-burning utilities, and vehicle emissions impact agricultural and forest productivity. Ocean waters are also becoming contaminated by agricultural, industrial, mining, and forestry activities.

Global climate change and the warming of the polar region will likely cause significant changes to the environment, including loss of the polar bear, the exploration for resource then the extraction of these resources and an alternative transport route to the Panama Canal through the Northwest Passage.

Canada is currently warming at twice the global average, and this is effectively irreversible.

Political geography

Canada is divided into ten provinces and three territories. According to Statistics Canada, 72.0 percent of the population is concentrated within 150 km of the nation's southern border with the United States, 70.0% live south of the 49th parallel, and over 60 percent of the population lives along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River between Windsor, Ontario, and Quebec City. This leaves the vast majority of Canada's territory as sparsely populated wilderness; Canada's population density is 3.5 /km2, among the lowest in the world. Despite this, 79.7 percent of Canada's population resides in urban areas, where population densities are increasing.

Canada shares with the U.S. the world's longest binational border at 8893 km; 2477 km are with Alaska. The Danish island dependency of Greenland lies to Canada's northeast, separated from the Canadian Arctic islands by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. As of June 14, 2022, Canada shares a land border with Greenland on Hans Island. The French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon lie off the southern coast of Newfoundland in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and have a maritime territorial enclave within Canada's exclusive economic zone.

Canada's geographic proximity to the United States has historically bound the two countries together in the political world as well. Canada's position between the Soviet Union (now Russia) and the U.S. was strategically important during the Cold War since the route over the North Pole and Canada was the fastest route by air between the two countries and the most direct route for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Since the end of the Cold War, there has been growing speculation that Canada's Arctic maritime claims may become increasingly important if global warming melts the ice enough to open the Northwest Passage.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Geography of Canada


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Demographics of Canada

Statistics Canada conducts a country-wide census that collects demographic data every five years on the first and sixth year of each decade. The 2021 Canadian census enumerated a total population of 36,991,981, an increase of around 5.2 percent over the 2016 figure. It is estimated that Canada's population surpassed 40 million in 2023 and 41 million in 2024. Between 1990 and 2008, the population increased by 5.6 million, equivalent to 20.4 percent overall growth. The main driver of population growth is immigration, with 6.2% of the country's population being made up of temporary residents as of 2023, or about 2.5 million people. Between 2011 and May 2016, Canada's population grew by 1.7 million people, with immigrants accounting for two-thirds of the increase.

Canada has one of the highest per-capita immigration rates in the world, driven mainly by economic policy and, to a lesser extent, family reunification. In 2021, a total of 405,330 immigrants were admitted to Canada. New immigrants settle mostly in major urban areas such as Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees, accounting for over 10 percent of annual global refugee resettlements.

Population

The 2021 Canadian census had a total population count of 36,991,981 individuals, making up approximately 0.5% of the world's total population. A population estimate for 2024 put the total number of people in Canada at 41,012,563.

Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022:

Death rate
 * One birth every 1 minutes
 * One death every 2 minutes
 * One net migrant every 2 minutes
 * Net gain of one person every 1 minute
 * 8.12 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.) Country comparison to the world: 81

Net migration rate
 * 5.46 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2022 est.) Country comparison to the world: 21st

Urbanization
 * urban population: 81.8% of total population (2022)
 * rate of urbanization: 0.95% annual rate of change (2020–25 est.)

Population distribution
The vast majority of Canadians are positioned in a discontinuous band within approximately 300 km of the southern border with the United States; the most populated province is Ontario, followed by Quebec and British Columbia.

Fertility rate
The total fertility rate is the number of children born in a specific year cohort to the total number of women who can give birth in the country.

In 1971, the birth rate for the first time dipped below replacement and since then has not rebounded.

Canada's fertility rate hit a record low of 1.4 children born per woman in 2020, below the population replacement level, which stands at 2.1 births per woman. In 2020, Canada also experienced the country's lowest number of births in 15 years, also seeing the largest annual drop in childbirths (−3.6%) in a quarter of a century. The total birth rate is 10.17 births/1,000 population in 2022.

Mother's mean age at first birth
Canada is among late-childbearing countries, with the average age of mothers at the first birth being 31.3 years in 2020.

Population projection
According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/World Bank, the population in Canada increased from 1990 to 2008 with 5.6 million and 20.4% growth in population, compared to 21.7% growth in the United States and 31.2% growth in Mexico. According to the OECD/World Bank population statistics, for the same period the world population growth was 27%, a total of 1,423 million people. However, over the same period, the population of France grew by 8.0%. And from 1991 to 2011, the population of the UK increased by 10.0%.

The current population growth rate for Canada in 2022 was 0.75%.

Life expectancy
Life expectancy in Canada has consistently risen since the country's formation.

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)
 * total: 16 years
 * male: 16 years
 * female: 17 years (2016)

Infant mortality rate
 * total: 4.5 deaths/1,000 live births. Country comparison to the world: 180th
 * male: 4.8 deaths/1,000 live births
 * female: 4.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2017 est.)

Age characteristics
Population by Sex and Age Group (Census 10.V.2016) (To ensure confidentiality, the values, including totals are randomly rounded either up or down to a multiple of '5' or '10.' As a result, when these data are summed or grouped, the total value may not match the individual values since totals and sub-totals are independently rounded. Similarly, percentages, which are calculated on rounded data, may not necessarily add up to 100%.):

Age structure
 * 0–14 years: 15.99% (male 3,094,008/female 2,931,953)
 * 15–24 years: 11.14% (male 2,167,013/female 2,032,064)
 * 25–54 years: 39.81% (male 7,527,554/female 7,478,737)
 * 55–64 years: 14.08% (male 2,624,474/female 2,682,858)
 * 65 years and over: 18.98% (male 3,274,298/female 3,881,126) (2020 est.)

Median age
 * total: 41.8 years. Country comparison to the world: 40th
 * male: 40.6 years
 * female: 42.9 years (2020 est.)
 * total: 40.6 years
 * male: 39.6 years
 * female: 41.5 years (2011)
 * Median age by province and territory in 2011
 * Newfoundland and Labrador: 44.0
 * Nova Scotia: 43.7
 * New Brunswick: 43.7
 * Prince Edward Island: 42.8
 * Quebec: 41.9
 * British Columbia: 41.9
 * Ontario: 40.4
 * Yukon: 39.1
 * Manitoba: 38.4
 * Saskatchewan: 38.2
 * Alberta: 36.5
 * Northwest Territories: 32.3
 * Nunavut: 24.1
 * Northwest Territories: 32.3
 * Nunavut: 24.1

Sex ratio
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

0–14 years: 1.06 male(s)/female

15–24 years: 1.06 male(s)/female

25–54 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

55–64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female

total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2022 est.

Dependency ratios
 * total dependency ratio: 47.3
 * youth dependency ratio: 23.5
 * elderly dependency ratio: 23.8
 * potential support ratio: 4.2 (2015 est.)

Employment
Unemployment, youth ages 15–24
 * total: 20.2%
 * male: 20.9%
 * female: 19.4% (2020 est.)

Canadians as ethnic group by province
All citizens of Canada are classified as "Canadians" as defined by Canada's nationality laws. "Canadian" as an ethnic group has since 1996 been added to census questionnaires for possible ancestral origin or descent. "Canadian" was included as an example on the English questionnaire and "Canadien" as an example on the French questionnaire. The majority of respondents to this selection are from the eastern part of the country that was first settled. Respondents generally are visibly European (Anglophones and Francophones) and no longer self-identify directly with their ethnic ancestral origins. This response is attributed to a multitude of reasons such as generational distance from ancestral lineage.

Ethnic origin
According to the 2021 Canadian census, over 450 "ethnic or cultural origins" were self-reported by Canadians. The major panethnic groups chosen were; European (52.5%), North American (22.9%), Asian (19.3%), North American Indigenous (6.1%), African (3.8%), Latin, Central and South American (2.5%), Caribbean (2.1%), Oceanian (0.3%), and Other (6.0%). Statistics Canada reports that 35.5% of the population reported multiple ethnic origins, thus the overall total is greater than 100%.

The country's ten largest self-reported specific ethnic or cultural origins in 2021 were Canadian (accounting for 15.6 percent of the population), followed by English (14.7 percent), Irish (12.1 percent), Scottish (12.1 percent), French (11.0 percent), German (8.1 percent), Indian (5.1 percent), Chinese (4.7 percent), Italian (4.3 percent), and Ukrainian (3.5 percent).

Of the 36.3 million people enumerated in 2021 approximately 25.4 million reported being "White", representing 69.8 percent of the population. The indigenous population representing 5 percent or 1.8 million individuals, grew by 9.4 percent compared to the non-Indigenous population, which grew by 5.3 percent from 2016 to 2021. One out of every four Canadians or 26.5 percent of the population belonged to a non-White and non-Indigenous visible minority, the largest of which in 2021 were South Asian (2.6 million people; 7.1 percent), Chinese (1.7 million; 4.7 percent) and Black (1.5 million; 4.3 percent).

As data is completely self-reported, and reporting individuals may have varying definitions of "Ethnic origin" (or may not know their ethnic origin), these figures should not be considered an exact record of the relative prevalence of different ethno-cultural ancestries but rather how Canadians self-identify.

Data from this section from Statistics Canada, 2021.

The most common ethnic origins per province are as follows in 2006 (total responses; only percentages 10% or higher shown; ordered by percentage of "Canadian"):
 * Quebec (7,723,525): Canadian (59.1%), French (29.1%)
 * New Brunswick (735,835): Canadian (50.3%), French (27.2%), English (25.9%), Irish (21.6%), Scottish (19.9%)
 * Newfoundland and Labrador (507,265): Canadian (49.0%), English (43.4%), Irish (21.8%)
 * Nova Scotia (906,170): Canadian (39.1%), Scottish (31.2%), English (30.8%), Irish (22.3%), French (17.0%), German (10.8%)
 * Prince Edward Island (137,375): Scottish (39.3%), Canadian (36.8%), English (31.1%), Irish (30.4%), French (21.1%)
 * Ontario (12,651,795): Canadian (23.3%), English (23.1%), Scottish (16.4%), Irish (16.4%), French (10.8%)
 * Alberta (3,567,980): English (24.9%), Canadian (21.8%), German (19.2%), Scottish (18.8%), Irish (15.8%), French (11.1%)
 * Manitoba (1,174,345): English (21.8%), German (18.6%), Canadian (18.5%), Scottish (18.0%), Ukrainian (14.9%), Irish (13.2%), French (12.6%), North American Indian (10.6%)
 * Saskatchewan (1,008,760): German (28.6%), English (24.9%), Scottish (18.9%), Canadian (18.8%), Irish (15.5%), Ukrainian (13.5%), French (12.2%), North American Indian (12.1%)
 * British Columbia (4,324,455): English (27.7%), Scottish (19.3%), Canadian (19.1%), German (13.1%), Chinese (10.7%)
 * Yukon (33,320): English (28.5%), Scottish (25.0%), Irish (22.0%), North American Indian (21.8%), Canadian (21.8%), German (15.6%), French (13.1%)
 * Northwest Territories (40,800): North American Indian (37.0%), Scottish (13.9%), English (13.7%), Canadian (12.8%), Irish (11.9%), Inuit (11.7%)
 * Nunavut (31,700): Inuit (85.4%)

Italics indicates either that this response is dominant within this province, or that this province has the highest ratio (percentage) of this response among provinces.

Visible minority population
Note: Indigenous population decline between 1991 and 1996 censuses attributed to change in criteria in census count; "the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples used a more restrictive definition of Aboriginal".

Indigenous population
Note: Other Indigenous and mixed Indigenous groups are not listed as their own, but they are all accounted for in total Indigenous

Future projections
Statistics Canada projects that visible minorities will make up between 38.2% and 43.0% of the total Canadian population by 2041, compared with 26.5% in 2021. Among the working-age population (15 to 64 years), meanwhile, visible minorities are projected to represent between 42.1% and 47.3% of Canada's total population, compared to 28.5% in 2021.

Knowledge of language
The question on knowledge of languages allows for multiple responses, and first appeared on the 1991 Canadian census. The following figures are from the 1991 Canadian census, 2001 Canadian census, 2011 Canadian census, and the 2021 Canadian census.

Immigration
According to the 2021 Canadian census, immigrants in Canada number 8.3 million persons and make up approximately 23 percent of Canada's total population. This represents the eighth-largest immigrant population in the world, while the proportion represents one of the highest ratios for industrialized Western countries.

Immigrants from specific countries are divided into several ethnic groups. For example, there are both Punjabis and Muhajirs from Pakistan, both Turks and Kurds from Turkey and both Sinhalese and Tamil from Sri Lanka. Immigrants from Iran are divided into Mazandaranians, Azeris, Persians, Kurds, Gilaks and Lurs.

Since confederation in 1867 through to the contemporary era, decadal and demi-decadal census reports have detailed immigration statistics. During this period, the highest annual immigration rate in Canada occurred in 1913, when 400,900 new immigrants accounted for 5.3 percent of the total population, while the greatest number of foreign-born individuals admitted to Canada in single year occurred in 2021, with 405,330 new immigrants accounting for 1.1 percent of the total population.

Statistics Canada projects that immigrants will represent between 29.1% and 34.0% of Canada's population in 2041, compared with 23.0% in 2021, while the Canadian population with at least one foreign born parent (first and second generation persons) could rise to between 49.8% and 54.3%, up from 44.0% in 2021.

Religion
In 2021, 53.3% of Canadians were Christians, down from 67.3% in 2011. 29.9% were Catholic while 13.2% belonged to a specific Protestant denomination, 7.6% were Christian not otherwise specified, 2.1% were "other Christian and Christian-related traditions", 1.7% were Christian Orthodox, 0.4% were Jehovah's Witnesses and 0.2% were Latter Day Saints adherents.

34.6% of Canadians were non-religious or secular, up from 23.9% in 2011. Of the non-Christian religions listed, 4.9% of Canadians were Muslim (3.2% in 2011), 2.3% were Hindu (1.5% in 2011), 2.1% were Sikh (1.4% in 2011), 1.0% were Buddhist (1.1% in 2011), 0.9% were Jewish (1.0% in 2011), 0.2% were believers of traditional (North American Indigenous) spirituality (same as 2011), and 0.6% were believers of other religions and spiritual traditions (0.4% in 2011).

title: Demographics of Canada