Ontario

Ontario (/ɒnˈtɛəri/ (listen) on-TAIR-ee-oh; French: [ɔ̃taʁjo]) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.[9][10] Located in Central Canada, it is Canada's most populous province, with 38.3 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province by total area (after Quebec).[11][12] Ontario is Canada's fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included.[2] It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto,[13] which is Ontario's provincial capital.

Ontario
Motto(s): 
Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin)
("Loyal she began, loyal she remains")
Coordinates: 49°15′N 84°30′W[1]
  1. ^ "Ontario". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada.
CountryCanada
ConfederationJuly 1, 1867 (1st, with New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec)
Capital
(and largest city)
Toronto
Largest metroGreater Toronto Area
Government
  TypeParliamentary constitutional monarchy
  Lieutenant GovernorElizabeth Dowdeswell
  PremierDoug Ford
LegislatureLegislative Assembly of Ontario
Federal representationParliament of Canada
House seats121 of 338 (35.8%)
Senate seats24 of 105 (22.9%)
Area
  Total1,076,395 km2 (415,598 sq mi)
  Land892,411 km2 (344,562 sq mi)
  Water158,654 km2 (61,257 sq mi)  14.7%
  Rank4th
 10.8% of Canada
Population
 (2021)
  Total14,223,942[3]
  Estimate 
(Q1 2023)
15,386,407[4]
  Rank1st
  Density15.94/km2 (41.3/sq mi)
DemonymOntarian[5]
Official languagesEnglish[6]
GDP
  Rank1st
  Total (2015)CA$763.276 billion[7]
  Per capitaCA$59,879 (7th)
HDI
  HDI (2019)0.937[8]Very high (3rd)
Time zones
East of 90th meridian westUTC– 05:00 (EST)
  Summer (DST)UTC– 04:00 (EDT)
West of 90th meridian west, except Atikokan and Pickle LakeUTC– 06:00 (CST)
  Summer (DST)UTC– 05:00 (CDT)
Atikokan and Pickle Lake (No DST)UTC– 05:00 (EST)
Canadian postal abbr.
ON
Postal code prefix
K L M N P
ISO 3166 codeCA-ON
FlowerWhite trillium
TreeEastern white pine
BirdCommon loon
Rankings include all provinces and territories

Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, and Quebec to the east and northeast, and to the south by the U.S. states of (from west to east) Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Almost all of Ontario's 2,700 km (1,678 mi) border with the United States follows inland waterways: from the westerly Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence River drainage system. There is only about 1 km (0.6 mi) of actual land border, made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border.[14]

The great majority of Ontario's population and arable land is in Southern Ontario, and while agriculture remains a significant industry, the region's economy depends highly on manufacturing. In contrast, Northern Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation,[15] with mining and forestry making up the region's major industries.


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This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Ontario, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.