I keep hearing that Australia’s population is so low due to uninhibitle land. Yet they have a very generous immigration attitude and there’s no child limit that I’m aware of. How can/does geography make any difference?
In: 1468
Canadian here. Just like Australia we are huge (2nd largest country) with a relatively small population (4 people per km2, Australia is 3.3 people per km2 for reference) and also has a [very generous immigration attitude](https://www.cicnews.com/2022/11/canada-immigration-levels-plan-2023-2025-1131587.html).
Having said that over 50% of Canadians live in a thin strip called the [Corridor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City%E2%80%93Windsor_Corridor) due to our geography. 94% of all Ontarian’s (Ontario is Canada’s most populous Province) live in the Ontario portion of the Corridor alone.
In Canada we have the [Canadian Shield](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shield) which covers over 50% of all of Canada and is a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Laurentia, the ancient geologic core of the North American continent.
The current surface expression of the Shield is one of very thin soil lying on top of the bedrock, with many bare outcrops. This arrangement was caused by severe glaciation during the ice age, which covered the Shield and scraped the rock clean.
The lowlands of the Canadian Shield have a very dense soil that is not suitable for forestation; it also contains many muskegs (marshes and bogs). The rest of the region has coarse soil that does not retain moisture well and is frozen with permafrost throughout the year. Forests are not as dense in the north.
Because of this the Shield is no good for large human settlements as you need to blast through the rock to install supports for tall buildings, and the soil is no good for agriculture.
Then we also have the [Arctic tundra](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Arctic_tundra) to the north which is practically uninhabitable and the [North American Cordillera](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Cordillera) (a large mountain range which includes the [Rockies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains)) in the west.
[This image specifically](https://img.flytrippers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/06012631/CanadaDenisty.png) really shows just how little human settlement there is in most of Canada.
Canada has massive amounts of land and most of it is uninhabitable by humans. On the flip side the Shield has massive forests and due to the lack of human settlement it is a massive nature reserve full of mammals such as caribou, white-tailed deer, moose, wolves, wolverines, weasels, mink, otters, grizzly bear, polar bears, beavers, and black bears.
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