Similarities & Differences Between Canada & United States

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Similarities & Differences Between Canada & United States

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot
alter the state of facts and evidence." - John Adams

The following table consists of facts and statistics concerning Canada and the United States, as recent as Jan 1, 2009 (unless
otherwise indicated).

  Canada United States Analysis

Geography & Resources

1
Total Area 9,984,670 sq km 9,826,630 sq km Canada has 1.6% more total
------------------------ ------------------------ area.
3,855,103 sq mi 3,794,083 sq mi

1
Land Area 9,093,507 sq km 9,161,923 sq km US has 0.7% more land.
------------------------ ------------------------
3,511,023 sq mi 3,537,438 sq mi

Renewable Freshwater 3,300 cu km 3,069 cu km Canada has 7% more

2
Supply (1985) renewable freshwater.

Energy Supply per capita 8.06 tonnes 7.55 tonnes Canada has 6.3% more
3
(equivalent oil) (2006) energy per capita.

Major Protected Areas as 6.7% 19.5% US has 2.9 times more

% of total area (land) naturally protected areas.
3
(2008)

Population

1
Population 33,487,208 307,212,123 US has 9.2 times more people.

1
Age Structure 0-14 yrs: 16.1% 0-14 yrs: 20.2% US has a slightly younger
15-64 yrs: 68.7% 15-64 yrs: 67.0% population.
65 yrs +: 15.2% 65 yrs +: 12.8%

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Similarities & Differences Between Canada & United States

1
Population Growth Rate 0.82% growth 0.98% growth US has a 16% higher growth
rate.

1
Birth rate 10.3 births / 1,000 13.8 births / 1,000 US has a 25.3% higher birth
population population rate.

1
Death Rate 7.6 deaths / 1,000 8.3 deaths / 1,000 US has a 8.4% higher death
population population rate.

1
Net Migration Rate 5.6 migrants / 1,000 4.3 migrants / 1,000 Canada has a 23.2% higher
population population migrant rate.

1
Sex Ratio 0.98 male/female 0.97 male/female Canada has a 1% greater
male pop.

1
Life Expectancy 81.2 years 78.1 years Canada has a 3.8% higher life
expectancy.

Ethnic Groups White: 83.5% White: 81.2% Canada has 2.3% more
Whites, 2.2 times more
Asian: 10.5% Black: 13.1% Asians, and 3.7 times more
Natives. US has 5.7 times
Native: 3.7% Asian: 4.7% more Blacks. All per capita.
See below for further
4 5
Black: 2.3% (2006) Native: 1.0% (2008) information.

Languages (spoken at English: 66.5% English: 80.3% US has 13.8% more English
home) (2006) speakers, and 17.4 times
French: 21.9% Spanish: 12.2% more Spanish speakers.
Canada has 31.3 times more
Chinese: 1.2% Chinese: 0.9% French speakers and 0.3%
more Chinese speakers. All per
4 5
Spanish: 0.7% French: 0.7% capita.

1
Religions Roman Catholic: 42.6% Protestant: 51.3 Canada has 18.7% more
Roman Catholics, and 12%
Protestant: 23.3% Roman Catholic: 23.9% more non-religious people. US
has 28% more Protestants. All
Other: 18.1% Other: 20.8% per capita.

None: 16% (2001) None: 4% (2007)

1
Literacy (2003) 99% 99% No discernible difference.

Economy

4 6
GDP $1.501 trillion USD $14.264 trillion USD US has 9.5 times greater GDP.

4 6
GDP per capita $44,823 USD $46,430 USD US has 3.5% greater GDP per
capita.

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Similarities & Differences Between Canada & United States

3
GDP growth rate (2007) 1 year: 2.7% 1 year: 2.0% Canada's GDP is growing 0.7%
more over a 1 year period, and
10 year: 3.3% 10 year: 2.9%
0.4% over a 10 year period.

Personal Disposable $28,591 USD $34,949 USD US has a 29.3% higher

7
Income per capita disposable income.

Unemployment Rate 6.3% 4.6% Canada has a 1.4 times higher

3
(2006) unemployment rate.

Trading Partners - Exports US: Canada: US is Canada's largest trading

/ Imports 75.5% / 63.4% 17.1% / 16% partner. Canada is US' largest
trading partner.
UK: China:
2.9% / 2.6% 5.2% / 16.1%

Mexico:
Japan: 5
4 10.1% / 10.3%
2.4% / 2.6%

Government 1.0% -2.5% Canada's lending represents

Surplus/Deficit as % of 1.0% of its GDP. US'
3
GDP (2007) borrowing represents 2.5% of
its GDP.

Government Debt as % of 63% 73.2% US has 10.2% greater

3
GDP (2007) marketable debt as expressed
in % of GDP.

Military Expenditure as % 1.1% 4.1% US spends 3.7 times more

1
of GDP (2005)   money on military as
expressed in % of GDP.

Research & Development 1.94% 2.62% US spends 1.4 times more

3
as % of GDP (2006) money on R&D as expressed in
% of GDP.

ODA Development AID 0.28% 0.16% Canada publicly spends 1.8

Expenditure as % of GNI times more on development
3
(2007) AID as expressed in % of GNI.

Educational Expenditure as 6.2% 7.1% US spends 0.9% more money

3
% of GDP (2005) on education as expressed in
% of GDP.

Health Care Expenditure as 10% 15.3% US spends 1.5 times more

3
% of GDP (2006) money on health care as
expressed in % of GDP.

  Total Government 39.3% 36.6% Canada spends 2.6% more  

Expenditure as % of GDP money in total as expressed in
3
(2006) % of GDP.

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Similarities & Differences Between Canada & United States

Total Tax Receipts as % of 33.4% 27.3% Canada collects 6.1% more

3
GDP (2005) taxes as expressed in % of
GDP.

Consumer Price Index 3.1% 5% US has 1.6 times greater CPI.

3
annual change

8
Exchange Rate $0.938 USD $1.066 CAD US dollar is 11.8% greater in
value.

Infrastructure

1
Railways 48,068 km 226,612 km US has 4.7 times more railway
------------------------ ------------------------ miles.
29,868 mi (2006) 140,810 mi (2005)

1
Highways (paved) 415,600 km 4,209,835 km US has 10.1 times more
------------------------ ------------------------ highway miles.
258,242 mi (2006) 2,615,870 mi (2007)

1
Airports (paved) (2008) 514 5,146 US has 10 times more
airports.

Miscellaneous

1
Independence Day July 1, 1867 July 4, 1776 US is 91 years older (Note:
Canada was not fully self-
governing until December 11,
1931).

Representatives of
1
Government (Legislative)
House Members: 308 House Members: 435 US has 122 more
representatives. Canada has 7
Senators: 105 Senators: 100 times more representatives per
------------------------ ------------------------ capita.
Total per 1 mill pop: 12.6 Total per 1 mill pop: 1.8

Nobel Prize Laureates 10 270 US has 3.1 more Nobel

9
(2002) ------------------------ ------------------------ Laureates per capita.
Total per 1 mill pop: 0.31 Total per 1 mill pop: 0.96
Arbitrarily chosen for
achievements in physics,
chemistry, medicine, literature
and peace.

IMD World 8th 1st An arbitrary ranking based on

10
Competitiveness rating some statistics and a rating
system.

Freedom House freedom of 25th 24th An arbitrary ranking based on

11
the press rating some statistics and a rating

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Similarities & Differences Between Canada & United States

system.

United Nations HDI 3rd 15th An arbitrary ranking based on

12
rating some statistics and a rating
system.

Summary:

Geography & Resources: Canada and the United States are both very large nations, making up the vast majority of the
North American continent. Canada has slightly larger territory, and the US has slightly more land. On a physical map the two
countries appear to be on an equal footing, but in reality much of Canada is unsuitable for normal living conditions due to
the very cold climate. This has resulted in the majority of Canada's population living along a long strip of land straddling the
US border (see Canada population distribution map). Even so, the large geography of Canada does contain a great many
natural resources, including one of the world's largest fresh water supplies. Although not counted as a renewable freshwater
13
resource, Canada and the US share the the Great Lakes, which contain nearly 6 quadrillion gallons of water. Combined,
Canada and the US would make the largest nation on Earth with the largest amount of freshwater supply.

Population: The largest advantage the US has over Canada is its much larger population. The US and Canadian growth
rates are fairly comparable, but the way they are growing is quite different. Canada's growth is supported much more by a
higher immigration rate. The absolute number of immigrants to the US is much greater, but on a per capita basis Canada's
migrant rate is nearly double that of the US. Likewise, the US birth rate is much higher than Canada's. Even when combined
with the higher death rate, the US internal growth rate is nearly double Canada's. This results in Canada becoming more
foreign, and the US becoming more USAmerican, at least on paper. One must consider the uncounted number of illegal
14
migrants, which some estimate are coming at a rate of 500,000 a month. Due to the fact that Canada does not share a
border with a less developed nation, illegal immigration is much less of a problem.

The US Census Bureau and Statistics Canada classify ethnic groups differently, and therefore a true comparison between the
two is difficult. However, Statistics Canada does record "Visible Minorities" so some inferences can be made. The US statistic
above was calculated by looking at "one race only" results and ignoring all races which could not be assigned to either White,
Black, Asian or Native American. Original data can be viewed from this link. The Canadian statistic above was calculated by
classifying all Blacks as "Black", all South Asian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Southeast Asian, and Filipinos as "Asian", all
Aboriginals as "Native", and all others as "White". We can see according to this estimate that Canada has slightly more
Whites, one sixth as many Blacks, over two times as many Asians, and over three times as many Native Americans,
proportionally. As with life expectancy and religious affiliation, these are less to do with national differences and have more
to do with regional differences. For example, Washington State's ethnic population makeup is as follows: White 81.8%, Asian
5
5.5%, Black 3.2%, and Native 1.6%. By and large, northern states, like their Canadian provincial counterparts, tend to have
less Blacks and more Natives. Additionally, life expectancies tend to be slightly higher among northern states (See: Average
Life Expectancy at Birth by State). The difference in religious beliefs is mainly due to high proportion of French-Canadian
Catholics located primarily in the Province of Quebec. The Catholics of Quebec account for nearly half of all Catholics in
Canada and thus highly skew the national figures.

Economy: It is well known that the US has had the strongest economy in the world since the post WWII era. Comparatively,
15
the US has more than double the GDP of the second highest ranked country, Japan, which is just over 4.6 trillion.
However, the statistic that really shows how well a country is doing comparative to their population is the GDP per capita
figure. In this category, the US lists within the top ten countries of the world. It outperforms Canada by nearly 18%, and
15
China, the 4th largest world economy, by 24.7 times. In 2004, the most current year data is available, the US posted a
much better GDP growth rate, but over the long term both Canada and the US are growing at very comparable rates.

Economics is obviously a complicated area and there are many factors to consider, but one major factor that helps the US
maintain its strength in the global economy and in comparison to Canada in particular, is its large domestic market.
Interestingly, if the European Union is counted as a nation, it would have a larger GDP than the United States, but Canada
and the United States combined would make the world's largest economy.

Military: One of the main reasons why the US spends so much on its military is that it is the economic leader of the world.
Holding that place makes enemies of smaller, less wealthy countries and/or groups that oppose the fundamental beliefs of
democracy and freedom that the United States stands for. For example, North Korea spends approximately 31% of its GDP
on its military, while its people literally starve. Many other hostile countries do not publicly give out information on military

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Similarities & Differences Between Canada & United States

expenditures. However, it is well known that countries such as Iran, Libya, and others are in the process of seeking or
already possess nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. As the only remaining superpower in the world, the United States
sees itself as obligated to try and keep peace and order. Many people may oppose actions that the US takes or has taken to
fulfill that obligation, but if not for the US, many aggressive land-hungry nations would be waging bloody wars every day.
Canada plays a part in keeping the peace, though its political support greatly outweighs its military contributions. Many First
or Second World countries, and a few Third World countries have the ability to defeat Canada alone in a military
engagement. However, Canada is one of the safest places in the world to live because the US is immediately west and south
of it.

Representatives of Government: What the above figures illustrate, is that on a comparative level Canada has a much
bigger government. Although it is debatable whether much of Parliaments back-benchers or the 105 un-elected Senators
actually represent Canada, this does all cost the Canadian taxpayer much more than the US taxpayer. This is simply because
Canada does not have the population base to justify such a huge government.

UN rating: The once much emphasized fact by many Canadian nationalists. Until recently Canada has been rated #1 by the
UN. Beginning in 2003 UNDP report rated Canada as #8 overall, and the United States #7. Canadians and Americans alike
shouldn't feel too bad about this. The United Nations is an organization which has very noble humanitarian causes, such as
"ending world hunger", "eliminating racial and gender inequalities", "reducing the economical gap between the rich and poor"
as well as others. These are all problems that if could be fixed, would make the world a better place. However, the HDI
rating takes into account only three very simple characteristics of a country: Life Expectancy, Literacy/Enrollment and PPP.
Hardly a basis for declaring the "best country in the world".

Sources:

1. CIA World Factbook

2. The Pacific Institute
3. OECD
4. Statistics Canada
5. United States Census Bureau
6. United States Department of Commerce
7. Centre for the Study of Living Standards
8. Bank of Canada
9. Nobel e-Museum
10. IMD International
11. Freedom House
12. United Nations Human Development Report
13. Great Lakes Information Network
14. The Christian Science Monitor
15. The World Bank

Copyright 2010 United North America. All Rights Reserved.

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