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Eastern Canada is divided between boreal forest and the barren Canadian Shield in the north and the highly fertile Saint Lawrence River Valley in the south, where most of the country's population is concentrated. Large parts of south central Canada are covered by plains and prairies. The west of Canada mostly consists of rolling terrain on either side of the Rocky Mountains. The Hudson Bay sea arm cuts deep into the country.

A number of large lakes are located throughout Canada, including the Great Lakes, which form part of the border with the United States. And due to its highly-fractured nature featuring numerous inlets, Canada's coastline is the longest in the world.

The vast north of the country is mainly arctic lowlands with a polar climate, and is therefore extremely sparsely populated; for example, fewer than 30,000 people live in the territory of Nunavut, which is the size of Western Europe. Most of the major cities are located in the more temperate south, with largest concentration in the east. The largest cities are (in descending order by population): Toronto, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; Vancouver, British Columbia; the Capital Region of Ottawa-Gatineau; Calgary, Alberta.