Canada has more lakes than any other country on Earth — over 2 million of them, more than any other single nation, though still fewer than all the rest of the world's countries put together — and Canada holds about 20 percent of the world's total fresh water.
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What we found
Canada is home to over 2 million lakes — more than any other single country — and holds roughly 20% of the world's fresh water. (The popular claim that Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined is a myth: the rest of the world has at least triple Canada's lake count.) It all traces back to the last Ice Age, when retreating glaciers carved millions of hollows into the ancient Canadian Shield bedrock. Follow for a new fact every day.
Transcript
Canada has more lakes than every other country on Earth. There are over 2 million lakes in Canada, holding roughly 20 percent of all the fresh water on the planet — a fifth of the world's supply. That means if you tried to visit just one Canadian lake per day, it would take you over 5,000 years to see them all — longer than the entire span of recorded human history. Most of these lakes sit on the Canadian Shield, an ancient expanse of exposed bedrock scraped bare by retreating glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, roughly 10,000 years ago. The glaciers carved and gouged the rock, leaving behind millions of water-filled hollows that never drained. Despite the popular claim, that is still fewer lakes than the rest of the world combined — but no other single country comes close. Russia, with all its famous lakes, holds a distant second place. Canada is, quite simply, the lake capital of the world. Follow for a fact every day.
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