Northernmost subregion of North America
Northern America Area 21,780,142 km2 (8,409,360 sq mi) Population 375,278,947 (2021 est.) Population density 16.5/km2 (42.7/sq mi) GDP (nominal) $27.5 trillion (2022)[ 1] Countries Dependencies Languages English , French , Spanish , Danish , Greenlandic , and various recognized regional languages Time zones UTC−10:00 (west Aleutians ) to UTC+00:00 (Danmarkshavn , Greenland )Largest cities UN M49 code021
– Northern America003
– North America 019
– Americas 001
– World
Northern America is the northernmost subregion of North America as well as the northernmost region in the Americas . The boundaries may be drawn significantly differently depending on the source of the definition. In one definition, it lies directly north of Middle America .[ 2] Northern America's land frontier with the rest of North America then coincides with the Mexico–United States border . Geopolitically , according to the United Nations' scheme of geographical regions and subregions , Northern America consists of Bermuda , Canada , Greenland , Saint Pierre and Miquelon and the United States (the contiguous United States and Alaska only, excluding Hawaii , Navassa Island , Puerto Rico , the United States Virgin Islands , and other minor U.S. Pacific territories ).[ 3] [ 4]
Definitions
Maps using the term Northern America date back to 1755, when the region was occupied by France , Great Britain , and Spain .[ 5] The Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America in 1813 applied to Mexico.
Today, Northern America includes the Canada–US dyad , developed countries that exhibit very high Human Development Indexes and intense economic integration while sharing many socioeconomic characteristics.[ 6]
The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions has "Northern America" as the seventh of its nine "botanical continents". Its definition differs from the usual political one: Mexico is included, Bermuda is excluded (being placed in the Caribbean region), Hawaii is excluded (being placed in the Pacific botanical continent) and all of the Aleutian Islands , Russian as well as American, are included.[ 7]
Countries and territories
* indicates "Demographics of country or territory" links.
Demographics
Year
Population[ 12]
% change
Canada
%
United States
%
1950
172,603,000
—
13,733,000
8.0%
158,804,000
92.0%
1960
204,649,000
+18.6%
17,847,000
8.7%
186,721,000
91.2%
1970
230,992,000
+12.9%
21,374,000
9.3%
209,513,000
90.7%
1980
254,007,000
+10.0%
24,417,000
9.6%
229,476,000
90.3%
1990
279,785,000
+10.1%
27,541,000
9.8%
252,120,000
90.1%
2000
312,427,000
+11.7%
30,588,000
9.8%
281,711,000
90.2%
2010
343,287,000
+9.9%
34,148,000
9.9%
309,011,000
90.0%
2020
368,870,000
+7.5%
37,742,000
10.2%
331,003,000
89.7%
See also
References
^ "April 2022 GDP Report for Canada and United States" . Retrieved 8 August 2022 .
^ Gonzalez, Joseph. 2004. "Northern America: Land of Opportunity" (ch. 6). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geography. (ISBN 1592571883 ) New York: Alpha Books; pp. 57–8
^ Definition of major areas and regions , from World Migrant Stock: The 2005 Revision Population Database, United Nations Population Division. Accessed on line October 3, 2007.
^ Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings , UN Statistics Division. Accessed online October 3, 2007. (French )
^ Bellin, Jacques-Nicolas (n.d.). "Carte de l'Amerique septentrionale (Map of Northern America, 1755)" . Library and Archives Canada . Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Item NMC 21057.
^ Torrey, Barbara Boyle & Eberstadt, Nicholas. 2005 (Aug./Sep.). "The Northern America Fertility Divide Archived 2007-11-07 at the Wayback Machine ." Hoover Institution Policy Review . No. 132.
^ Brummitt, R.K. (2001). World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions: Edition 2 (PDF) . International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases For Plant Sciences (TDWG). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2016-04-06 .
^ "World Population Prospects 2022" . United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs , Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022 .
^ "World Population Prospects 2022: Demographic indicators by region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100" (XSLX) ("Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)"). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs , Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022 .
^ Unless otherwise noted, land area figures are taken from Demographic Yearbook—Table 3: Population by sex, rate of population increase, surface area and density (PDF) (Report). United Nations Statistics Division. 2008. Retrieved 2010-10-14 .
^ Includes the U.S. state of Hawaii , which is distant from the North American landmass in the Pacific Ocean and therefore more commonly associated with the other territories of Oceania .
^ "World Population Prospects" . population.un.org . Archived from the original on 2019-08-09. Retrieved 2019-02-24 .
External links