Discover Where People Live and Why They Choose to Settle There

Have you ever wondered why some places have lots of people and others have very few? You will discover that people choose where to live based on the land, water, and resources around them. This is called a settlement pattern.

In Canada, most people live in the southern part of the country. You can learn more about how maps show these patterns by exploring World Maps and Locations.

You will find that people live in four main types of communities. Each one looks and feels very different from the others.

• Urban communities are large cities with tall buildings, busy streets, and millions of people living close together. Toronto is a great example of a large urban city in Canada.
• Suburban communities are neighbourhoods found just outside a large city. You would see rows of houses with yards in a suburban area.
• Rural communities are in the countryside, far from cities. They have farms, open land, and fewer people. Many people in rural areas do farming, fishing, or work with natural resources.
• Remote communities are very far from cities and have very few people and limited services nearby.

You can explore how communities form and grow by visiting Community Development.

People choose places to live where they can find water, food, and safe shelter. You will learn that natural features of the land play a big role in where communities are built.

• Rivers and lakes give people fresh water for drinking, farming, and transportation. That is why many Canadian communities grew near water.
• Flat land makes it easier to build homes, roads, and farms. Steep, rocky mountains are much harder to build on.
• Forests gave early settlers wood to build homes and fires for warmth.
• Good farmland with fertile soil lets people grow the food they need to survive.

You can learn more about how the land affects where people live by exploring Climate and Geography Impact.

Community: A community is a place where people live and work together in the same area. Your neighbourhood is part of a community.

Settlement: A settlement is a place where people chose to live and build their community. Early settlers in Canada built settlements near rivers and forests.

Settler: A settler is a person who moves to a new place and makes a home there. Early settlers in Canada often built their homes near forests and rivers.

Settlement Pattern: A settlement pattern describes where and how people choose to live across a region or country. You can see Canada's settlement pattern on a population map.

Urban: An urban area is a busy place with many people, tall buildings, and busy streets. Cities like Toronto are urban areas.

Rural: A rural area is in the countryside with farms, open spaces, and fewer people. Life in a rural community is quieter with more space.

Suburban: A suburb is a community located just outside a large city. You would find rows of houses with yards in a suburban neighbourhood.

Remote: A remote community is very far from cities and has very few people and limited services nearby.

Population: Population is the total number of people living in one place. Ontario has the largest population of any Canadian province.

Population Density: Population density describes how many people live in a certain area. A city has high population density because many people live very close together in a small space.

You can practice identifying types of communities by looking at pictures of places and deciding if they are urban, rural, suburban, or remote. Think about what features you see tall buildings, farms, or houses near a city.

You can also look at a map of Canada and find where most people live. You will notice that most Canadians live in the south, near the US border, where the weather is milder and the land is good for farming. Explore Understanding Maps to practice reading maps that show where people live.

Before exploring settlement patterns, you learned some important ideas that help you understand this topic. In Features of Our Community, you discovered what makes a community special. In People and Places, you explored how people connect to the places around them. You also learned about Basic Mapping Concepts, which help you read maps that show where people live.

Understanding where people live connects to many other exciting topics you will explore. In Community Problem Solving, you will see how communities work together to solve challenges. You will also explore Regional Characteristics and Geographic Features to learn how the land shapes communities even more.

As you keep learning, you will explore Human Geography, which looks at how people and places are connected all around the world. You will also discover Early Communities and Migration Stories to learn how people moved and built new homes throughout history. You can use geography tools to study these patterns in Using Geography Tools, and learn about the kinds of work people do in different communities in Types of Work.