Why 50% of Canadians Live South of This Line

As a Canadian who lives south of that line the answer is easy... too cold up there

Another fun fact: Most Canadians live in Canada

As a Canadian living in the US, I spend more time explaining that more Americans live north of most of us, and that we have 4 seasons, than anything else. This is not embarrassing for us!

Ottowa is the capital of Canada? Who knew?! For decades I thought it was Ottawa! ;)

Short answer : it's cold above this line. Long answer: it's very cold above this line.

Fun fact: 100% of Canadians spell "Ottowa" as Ottawa.

Some of us who live far North of that 100 mile line are still starting to feel congested. When I visit a dense metro area I start to feel suffocated in a just a few days. I like my wide open space, pristine forest, canyons, rivers, wildlife. I love people, I just don't love living near them.

Yeah, I feel like many people overestimate how populous our country is, especially compared to the US just south of us having very high population density, but most of the country is either rock, frozen, water, farmland (Saskatchewan) or a city. Many people prefer the cities.

I was expecting a 5 second video saying "Because it's cold up there..."

RealLifeLore: Talks about orchards and wineries in Southern Ontario, shows picture of Okanagan region in B.C. Me, a Western Canadian: resigned sigh

A long time ago, I went on a Eurotrip with some friends I knew ever since high school. There were three of us and we were all from the Toronto area. We identified ourselves as Canadian. Then, on a walking tour thingie, we heard some other people indicate they were Canadian, too. They were from Manitoba or something. When we heard them talk, we realized what all the Canadian stereotypes about "aboot" were all, well, aboot.

You do realize that the winds are way stronger in southern Ontario than anywhere in America other than Alaska (edited) and also we don’t have major gun problems

Gonna go out on a limb and assume it’s cold up there

Here's a fun fact: there's more Puerto Ricans outside of Puerto Rico than inside of it

Fun fact, your picture of a Canadian vineyard in 'Ontario' is of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia 😀

It's a striking graph, but you're just highlighting Toronto and Montreal. You can do a vertical version of the meme by drawing a couple of lines somewhere along 82W and 72 W. Then you can say 50% of Canadians live between these two vertical lines.

Fun Fact: At least 40% of Canadians live in Canada!

I'm from the Toronto area, and whenever I go up to Algonquin Park I feel that I'm 'way way up north', but in actual fact there are entire US states that are north of Algonquin Park.

Several things wrong. First, while the Southern Ontario region is fertile, and indeed some of the most fertile land in the world, you left out the entire Great Plains region which includes parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. While nowhere near as densely populated as the Qc-W corridor, it's a major source of agricultural output for the country. And I say this as a Southern Ontarian! Second, there's several huge geopolitical reasons for the population density that you did not allude to, which is shame. One is outlined by Jason Ross in a top comment below - the CN railway in the West was intentionally built close to the border to ensure the border would not be encroached upon by the US secretly - hard to do so when there's "Canadians" living there. Another is the the combination of the geography of the Saint Lawrence/lower Great Lakes, and the French colonization of Quebec. When the British took over what is now Quebec and Ontario from the French in ~1763, they faced an... uncooperative population, to say the least. Most of what would become Southern Ontario was divided into a distinct region - Upper Canada, separate from the French-speaking Lower Canada. At this point, as you alluded to regarding shipping, what is now Southern Ontario was pretty much "the inland" - the west was very far from being explored or claimed. Then, the American Revolution happened. Loyalists fleeing the 13 colonies needed somewhere British to go, and they settled mostly in Upper Canada, what is now Southern Ontario, founding cities like Kingston and York (now Toronto). Thus, we had a massive population concentration even as far back as 1790 and it has only grown since. Touching on this is like, Canadian Histropoliticalgeography 101, so I would have expected to see it mentioned.

It’s crazy to think how Canada is the 2nd biggest country in the world, but the majority of the population live in urban areas in the southern area. While the rest of the country is just kilometers and kilometers of beautiful unappreciated wilderness and tundras. Some parts of Canada are so far from civilization and untouched by man, it’s like being on a different planet.