Southern Ontario

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Southern Ontario is the portion of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies south of the French River and Algonquin Park.

For most purposes, Southern Ontario is much more commonly divided into smaller regions, such as Eastern Ontario, Western Ontario, Central Ontario, the Greater Toronto Area or the Golden Horseshoe, which includes the Greater Toronto Area.

1 Identity
2 Demographics
3 Sources
4 See also

[edit] Identity

It is generally considered distinct from Northern Ontario, as it is far more densely populated and contains the majority of the province's cities, major roads, and institutions (Southern Ontario contains 94% or 11.75 million of Ontario's total population of 12.5 million people); the north, in contrast, contains more natural resources and remote wilderness. The south makes up approximately 15% of the entire land area of the province as a whole. For an inland location, it has an abdundance of fresh water coastline on three of the Great Lakes, Huron, Erie and Ontario and smaller inland lakes, notably Lake Simcoe and Lake St. Clair (part of the Great Lakes system). It is a major vineyard region and producer of Canadian wines.

Some analyses can go as far as to consider the two regions as, essentially, separate provinces, due to the level of contrast.

[edit] Demographics

Southern Ontario Contains almost 12 million people, whereas the north contains less than 800,000. This is due mainly to the fact that, historically, the land in the South was more arable and the climate was much more moderate and warm.

The region is one of the top destinations for immigrants world-wide. It has 2 CMAs with over 1 million inhabitants, and arguably 3 non-CMA metropolitan areas with over 5 million people (the urban areas of Toronto, Windsor, and Ottawa), one of the few provinces or states in North America to do so.

Toronto, located at the epicentre of this region, has one of the most diverse populations in the world (according to the UN).

[edit] Sources

Chapman, L.J. and Putnam, D.F. The Physiography of Southern Ontario. 3rd ed. Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 1984. (Ontario Geological Survey. Special volume 2) ISBN 0-7743-9422-6.