North America, the third largest continent in area, extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to South America in the south. Only Asia and Africa cover larger areas. North America ranks fourth among the continents in population, after Asia, Africa, and Europe.
North America includes Canada, Greenland, the United States, Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean Sea. Canada and the United States make up what is sometimes called Anglo-America (English-America) because many of their settlers came from England. English is the dominant language in Anglo-America. Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean islands are sometimes called Middle America because they lie between Anglo-America and South America. Spanish is the dominant language in Middle America, though English is spoken on many Caribbean islands.
Anglo-America has valuable supplies of coal, petroleum, natural gas, and other underground resources. It has thick forests and vast farmlands. Anglo-America produces about a fourth of the world’s manufactured goods. It also exports more food than any other region in the world. Some Middle American countries, on the other hand, rank among the world’s poor countries. Limited natural resources, inefficiently managed economies, and political problems have hampered their economic development.
North America offers other contrasts. Its climate is the most varied of any continent. Northern ice-covered plains differ widely in temperature from sunny Caribbean beaches. The landscape ranges from magnificent mountain peaks to flat grasslands. Luxuriant redwood forests along the Pacific coast contrast sharply with the parched sands of the southwestern deserts. North America has the world’s largest island, Greenland, and the world’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Superior.
People
The earliest North Americans came to the continent from Asia. Today these people are known as Native Americans. Most scientists think they arrived about 15,000 years ago, but some believe they came as early as 35,000 years ago. Groups of these people crossed the Bering Strait—which was dry land then—while following the large mammals they hunted. They eventually settled throughout the continent, but especially in Middle America. The ancestors of today’s Inuit migrated from Asia to the northern part of North America several thousand years ago.
The first Europeans to discover North America were the Norse, or Viking, explorers from Scandinavia. They visited Greenland and the Labrador coast of Canada in the late 900’s. Europeans began settling the continent in the late 1400’s and early 1500’s. Explorers from Spain were the first to sail across the Atlantic Ocean to Middle America. About 100 years later, British and French people settled in what are now the United States and Canada. Black people captured in Africa were originally brought to North America by the Spanish to work as slaves on sugar plantations in the Caribbean. Enslaved Black Africans later were brought to Atlantic coastal areas of the mainland, chiefly from British islands in the Caribbean.
Population.
About 598 million people live in North America, or about 8 percent of the world’s population. Few people live in the cold northern part of the continent or in its western deserts. Many large cities lie along the eastern Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River, and the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Virginia. Since the 1950’s, millions of people have moved from the northeastern and midwestern United States to California and states in the Southwest and along the Gulf Coast. In Middle America, most people live in the cool highlands where indigenous (native) peoples originally settled. Mexico City, in these highlands, is one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas. Since 1900, many Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans have moved to the United States. 
Ancestry.
Most North Americans are descendants of Europeans. Immigrants from every European country have settled in North America. About a fifth of the people of the United States and about half of the people of Canada have ancestors from England, Ireland, Scotland, or Wales. About a sixth of all Canadians have French ancestors. Most European ancestors of Middle Americans came from Spain.
African American people make up about 13 percent of the population of the United States. Most of the people of the Caribbean islands are descended from Black Africans. Other Caribbean people are of mixed African and European descent.
Asians make up a small percentage of the population of North America. People from Asia began immigrating to the continent in the 1800’s. Asian immigrants have come mainly from China, Indochina, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.
Many Native Americans in the United States and Canada live on reservations. Indigenous people also occupy much of central Mexico and parts of Central America. Most of the people of Mexico and Central America are mestizos, people of mixed European and Native American ancestry. See Mestizo.
There are only about 183,000 Inuit and Aleuts in North America. They live in Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland.
Languages.
Most North Americans speak English, Spanish, or French. Generally, the various regions of the continent have retained the languages of the early European colonists. English is spoken throughout the United States and most of Canada. Both English and French are spoken in Quebec and some other parts of Canada. Almost all Mexicans and most of the people of Central America and the Caribbean islands speak Spanish, though French, English, and Dutch are spoken in some areas. Many Native Americans and Inuit still use their native languages. For more information about the people of North America, see the People section of the various country, state, and province articles.
The land
North America covers about 9,354,000 square miles (24,226,000 square kilometers), or about a sixth of the world’s land area. The continent is roughly triangular in shape. The Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans border the three sides. At its northern end, North America stretches more than 5,400 miles (8,900 kilometers) from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to the Canadian island of Newfoundland. At the southern end of the continent, the narrowest parts of Panama are only about 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide. The greatest north-south distance spans about 5,400 miles (8,900 kilometers), from northern Greenland to Panama.
Land regions.
North America has eight major land regions. They are (1) the Pacific Ranges and Lowlands, (2) the Western Plateaus, Basins, and Ranges, (3) the Rocky Mountains, (4) the Interior Plains, (5) the Canadian Shield, (6) the Appalachian Highlands, (7) the Coastal Lowlands, and (8) Central America and the Caribbean.
Pacific Ranges and Lowlands
consist of two parallel mountain ranges separated by a series of valleys. The mountains extend from Alaska to Mexico. Fertile valleys between the mountain ranges are productive agricultural centers. The outer ranges include the Olympic Mountains in Washington and the coastal mountains of Oregon and California. The inland ranges have the continent’s tallest peaks and some of its most spectacular scenery. Denali, North America’s highest mountain, rises 20,310 feet (6,190 meters) in the Alaska Range. The inland mountains also include the Cascade Range, which has many volcanic peaks, and the Sierra Nevada of California. Much of this ruggedly beautiful area is preserved as national, state, and provincial parks. 
The Western Plateaus, Basins, and Ranges
lie between the Pacific ranges and the Rocky Mountains. This dry region includes the Columbia Plateau, the Colorado Plateau, the Great Basin centered in Nevada, and the Plateau of Mexico. Much of the copper, gold, lead, silver, and zinc produced in North America comes from this region. Its land features include the spectacular Grand Canyon. The lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Death Valley in California. It is 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level.
The Rocky Mountains
form North America’s largest mountain system. They run from Alaska to New Mexico. Thick forests cover mountain slopes throughout the region, and the southern Rockies have rich deposits of minerals. The Rockies’ scenic peaks make the region a popular recreation and tourist area.
The Interior Plains
cover much of central Canada and the midwestern United States. The eastern part of this flat, low-lying region is North America’s most productive agricultural area. Corn, hogs, and soybeans rank among the leading products. The drier western part—the Great Plains—supplies most of the continent’s wheat and much of its cattle, coal, petroleum, and natural gas.
The Canadian Shield
is a huge area of ancient rock that covers most of Canada east of the Great Plains and north of the Great Lakes. Few people live in this region because of the poor soil and cold climate. Many valuable minerals lie beneath its surface. A vast boreal forest—consisting mainly of evergreens—extends across the southern part of the region.
The Appalachian Highlands
extend from the island of Newfoundland to Alabama. The region includes low, rounded mountains; plateaus; and valleys. One of the world’s most productive coal fields lies in the Allegheny Plateau, in the central part of the region. Hardwood forests grow in the northern and southern sections.
The Coastal Lowlands
stretch along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, from New York City to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The rich soil in much of this region creates good farmland. Many of North America’s best harbors and great port cities are along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The region’s broad, sandy beaches and warm waters attract millions of tourists each year.
Central America and the Caribbean
consist of the narrow bridge of land at the southern tip of North America and the islands in the Caribbean Sea. A chain of volcanoes forms a mountainous spine along the Pacific coast of Central America. Most of the Caribbean islands were created by volcanic eruptions. Others are coral and other limestone formations.
Rivers.
West of the Rocky Mountains, the rivers of North America drain into the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of California, an arm of the Pacific. East of the Rockies, rivers flow into the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico. The high ridge of the Rockies that separates the waters is called the Great Divide, or the Continental Divide. The divide continues through Mexico and Central America and also separates the flow of rivers in those areas.
West of the Rockies, such rivers as the Yukon, Fraser, and Columbia rush to the Pacific through gaps in the coastal ranges. The Colorado River cuts through the Grand Canyon as it flows toward the Gulf of California.
The Mackenzie River, which forms part of Canada’s longest river system, flows from Great Slave Lake into the Arctic Ocean. Many Canadian streams and rivers empty into Hudson Bay. East of the Appalachian Mountains, several short rivers, such as the Connecticut and the Hudson, drain into the Atlantic. Many of the main rivers in Mexico, such as the Lerma and Balsas, are not as long as those in the north. However, they provide water that is vital to irrigation, hydroelectric power, and wildlife habitats.
The continent’s longest river system, the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio, flows into the Gulf of Mexico. This system, which is about 4,700 miles (7,600 kilometers) long, drains almost all of the United States between the Rockies and the Appalachian Mountains. The Rio Grande, which forms most of the border between the United States and Mexico, also empties into the gulf.
Lakes.
Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world. It is one of the five Great Lakes, which make up part of North America’s most important inland waterway. Four of the Great Lakes—Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario—lie on the border between Canada and the United States. The fifth, Lake Michigan, lies entirely within the United States. A chain of large lakes extends northwest from the Great Lakes to Great Bear Lake, Canada’s largest lake. Utah’s Great Salt Lake, one of the natural wonders of North America, is saltier than the ocean.
Many of the rivers in the United States and Canada have been dammed to form large but narrow artificial lakes, or reservoirs. Lake Mead and Lake Powell on the Colorado River are among the largest such lakes in the United States. Smallwood Reservoir on the Churchill River in Newfoundland is Canada’s largest artificial lake.
Waterfalls.
North America’s most famous waterfall is Niagara Falls, on the U.S.-Canadian border between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Niagara Falls consists of two waterfalls, the Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls. The Horseshoe Falls is only 167 feet (51 meters) high, but more water passes over it than over any other waterfall in North America. A number of higher falls—several more than 1,000 feet (300 meters) high—plunge through the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada. North America’s highest waterfall, Yosemite Falls, is a main attraction at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada. Yosemite Falls drops 2,425 feet (739 meters). 
Deserts.
Most North American deserts lie in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. One vast dry area reaches from southern Idaho and Oregon into Mexico. It includes the Great Basin, the Mojave Desert and Death Valley, and the Sonoran Desert. Another area, the Chihuahuan Desert, extends from southern New Mexico through western Texas into Mexico. 
Coastline and islands.
North America has a longer total coastline than any other continent. Including the continent’s many islands, the coastline is about 190,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) long.
Mountains line the Pacific and north Atlantic coasts, and many bays cut into the rocky land. Plains slope gently to the coasts along the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic south of New York City. There, the coastline is relatively smooth and even.
A number of islands lie off the coasts of North America. Greenland is in the North Atlantic Ocean. Newfoundland and other islands lie off the Canadian coast in the Atlantic Ocean. In the Pacific Ocean, Vancouver and many other islands lie off Canada, the Aleutian Islands extend westward from the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, and the Channel Islands are off California’s southern coast. The islands in the Caribbean Sea include the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the Lesser Antilles. Cuba, one of the Greater Antilles, is the largest Caribbean island.
Climate
North America is the only continent that has every kind of climate, from the dry, bitter cold of the Arctic to the steamy heat of the tropics. An ice sheet permanently covers the interior of Greenland, where the temperature almost never rises above freezing. In the North American tundra, the vast treeless plain of the far north, the temperature rises above freezing for only a short period each summer. In the low-lying areas of the far south, it is hot and rainy all the time.
Most of the rest of North America is cold in the winter and warm in the summer, with moderate precipitation. Some areas have mild winters and long, hot summers. Other areas have harsh winters and short summers. The highest temperature ever recorded in North America was 134 °F (57 °C) at Death Valley in 1913. The lowest temperature was –87 °F (–66 °C) at Northice in Greenland in 1954.
Animal life
North America has abundant animal life, which varies with the climate and plant life of each region. Caribou, musk oxen, polar bears, seals, snowy owls, whales, and wolverines live in the cold north. Jaguars, monkeys, and colorful birds are found in tropical Central America. Rocky Mountain sheep and goats graze on the slopes of the Rockies. The southwestern deserts have a wide variety of lizards and rattlesnakes. Coyotes and pronghorns—animals that are found only in North America—roam the Great Plains. The forests of Canada and the eastern United States have beavers, black bears, deer, ermines, minks, moose, muskrats, and porcupines. Canada geese, ducks, egrets, pelicans, and spoonbills are among the birds that winter in the marshes of the Coastal Lowlands, and alligators live in the coastal waters of the far south. Raccoons, skunks, and squirrels are common throughout the continent.
The oceans supply commercial fishing crews with valuable catches of cod, flounder, and many other kinds of fish and shellfish. Crabs are plentiful in the northern Pacific, lobsters in the northern Atlantic, and menhaden all along the Atlantic coast. Shrimp and oysters are abundant in the Gulf of Mexico.
Certain kinds of wildlife have decreased sharply in number over the years. These include the bison (buffalo), the whooping crane, and the bald eagle. Game laws and the establishment of protected areas help such animals survive today.
Plant life
The plant life of North America is related to the continent’s various climates. Nothing grows on Greenland’s ice sheet. Only grasses, mosses, and lichens survive in the vast cold plains that border the Arctic Ocean. A kind of moss called sphagnum or peat fills the marshes of the Canadian Shield and is an important export from this region. Huge saguaro cactuses and other cactus plants grow in the southwestern deserts. Short grasses and small bushlike plants, such as tumbleweed, cover the dry Great Plains.
Most of the rest of the continent has forests and level or rolling grasslands called prairies. The prairies stretch across the center of the continent. The forests cover the continent’s western mountain regions, most of Canada, and the eastern half of the United States. A tropical rain forest grows along the Caribbean coast.
The finest North American forests are those along the Pacific coast. The towering redwoods stand there, as well as forests of cedar, fir, hemlock, and spruce.
The Canadian forests include fir, larch, pine, and spruce trees. Hardwood trees, such as maple and beech, grow in the northeastern United States. Many trees that grow in Canada and the northeastern United States are processed into wood pulp for newsprint. Hickory, oak, and pine trees fill the forests of the southern United States. Central America’s tropical forests include mahogany and rosewood trees, which are used in making furniture.
Agriculture
North America ranks second among the continents after Asia in agricultural production. Its farms grow about 35 percent of the world’s corn and soybeans. North American farms produce about 20 percent of the world’s oats and sorghum, 15 percent of its cotton, and 10 percent of its wheat. Farmers in the United States and Canada grow so much food that large quantities may be sent to other countries. For example, North America provides about 25 percent of world’s grain exports.
Fertile soil and a favorable climate help make the midwestern United States the agricultural heart of North America. Farmers throughout this area grow corn, soybeans, and other crops, and they raise cattle and hogs. The Great Plains region of Canada and the United States is a major wheat-growing area. Massive feedlots, where cattle are fattened before going to market, are also in this region. Large cattle and sheep ranches cover the Western basins and plateaus. Irrigation enables farmers in these areas to produce many varieties of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Other crops, such as cotton and alfalfa, are grown in abundance. Corn, dry beans, and rice are important food crops throughout Middle America. Large plantations located in the region produce such crops as bananas, coffee, cotton, and sugar cane.
Only about 2 percent of United States and Canadian workers farm. Most of the farmers own all or at least part of their land. In Middle America, about 15 percent of the people farm, and few of them own their own land. Many work as laborers on large plantations. Some own or rent small plots of land on which they struggle to grow enough food to feed their families.
Industry
Manufacturing.
North America ranks third to Asia and Europe among the continents in manufacturing. Together, the United States and Canada produce about a fifth of the world’s manufactured goods. The continent’s chief manufactured goods include automobiles, chemicals, and food products. Manufacturing employs about one-tenth of all North American workers.
The midwestern and northeastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec have long been North America’s major manufacturing centers. Since the mid-1900’s, however, industry has expanded rapidly in the southern United States and along its Pacific coast. The chief products from factories in these newer industrial areas include aircraft and missiles, computers and electronic components, and petroleum and petrochemicals (chemicals made from petroleum or natural gas). Manufacturing also has grown in Middle America, particularly Mexico. Modern factories in Mexico now supply the world with automobiles, automobile parts, and electronics. Other countries in Middle America produce chemicals, clothing and textiles, and food products.
Mining.
North America has large supplies of a broad range of minerals. The continent produces about 30 percent of the world’s supply of potash and about 25 percent of its natural gas and silver. About 20 percent of the world’s crude oil come from North America, as does about 15 percent of its coal, copper, gold, and uranium. About 1 percent of all North American workers have jobs in mining.
Most of North America’s petroleum and natural gas comes from the Great Plains region, Alaska, and offshore deposits in the Gulf of Mexico. Major coal fields lie in the Appalachian Plateau, the central United States, and the Rocky Mountain region. Metallic minerals come mainly from the Canadian Shield, the Rockies and other western mountains, and the Appalachian Highlands.
Transportation and communication
North America lies between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the middle of the world’s major trade routes. The Panama Canal at the southern tip of the continent connects the two oceans. Large ports line North America’s east and west coasts. Houston, New Orleans, and New York City are among the ports that handle the most cargo on the Atlantic coast. The leading ports on the Pacific coast include Long Beach, California; Los Angeles; Valdez Harbor, Alaska; and Vancouver, British Columbia. 
The United States and southern Canada have one of the world’s most highly developed transportation systems, including inland waterways, highways, and railroads. The Mississippi River system, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence Seaway form North America’s most important inland waterways. Highways and railroad tracks crisscross the United States and southern Canada. Few roads lead into northern Canada. In Mexico, paved roads and railroad lines link major cities. In Central America and the Caribbean, most local roads are unpaved, and most railroad companies are small, private lines that connect sugar or banana plantations with processing plants and ports.
North America has an extensive regional airline network. Most flights serve the large cities of the United States and southern Canada. Many of the world’s busiest airports are in the United States.
North America also has excellent communications systems. Radios, televisions, computers and smartphones are common in U.S. and Canadian households. The use of such consumer electronics is also widespread in many parts of Middle America. Most North American newspapers and radio and television broadcasting stations are privately owned, except in Cuba, where the government controls most communications. Since the mid-1990’s, internet usage has grown tremendously. Today, most residents of the United States and Canada have internet access. A smaller proportion of people in Middle America have internet access, with usage rates on Caribbean islands higher than those elsewhere in Middle America.
