Canada as Described by Our World Records
By Distributel
How would you describe Canada? Well, read on, because we’re pretty distinctive in world-record-breaking ways.
We Have the Longest Coastline in the World
We’re a big country with a pretty rugged coastline, so it’s no surprise we also have the most of it.
We Have the Most Computers Per Capita
In Canada, there are 108.6 computers per 100 people. Wow, that’s a lot of computing, Canada.
We Have the Longest Railway Network Per Capita
For every kilometre of railway we have, there are 468 people. Of course, that’s more to do with the fact that we’re a very big country.
Our Best-Selling Single Is by Celine Dion
“Pour que tu m’aimes encore” (“So that You’ll Love Me Again”) from D’eux has sold an estimated 2.1 million copies in Canada.
Our Best-Selling Album Is by Michael Jackson
Nope, we didn’t buy a CanCon record the most. This honour goes to Thriller, which Canadians have purchased 2.75 million times.
The Most Weeks at #1 Is Shared by Black Eyed Peas & Ed Sheeran
Both “I Gotta Feeling” and “Shape of You” spent 16 weeks at the #1 spot on the Canada Hot 100.
We Smoke the Fewest Cigarettes Per Capita
Hey, here’s something to be proud of. Only 17% of Canadians smoke one cigarette per day. That makes us a country that smokes less than any other.
Our Women Have Won the Most Hockey Medals
The Canadian Women’s team has five gold medals (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2022), and that’s more than anyone else.
Our Men Have Won the Most Hockey Medals
Our men’s team has nine gold medals (1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1948, 1952, 2002, 2010, and 2014), and that’s more than anyone else. Except Russia. Who also has nine. So maybe we have to admit that we’re sharing this record. But we do so reluctantly!
We Have the Longest-Running Sports Programme
That’s right, Hockey Night in Canada has been on the air since 1933. In 1952, it became a TV programme.
We Have the Cleanest Water of Any Country
The Ocean Health Index measures the cleanliness of ocean waters, and guess what? Canada has the cleanest water of any country. We score an 84 out of 100 in their rankings. So it looks like we can improve by 16 points.
Okay, technically we’re #13 in their rankings, but the entries beating us are either uninhabited island groups or external territories of other countries. For example, the Falkland Islands. So we’re the best country, if we measure best country by clean ocean water. Go us!
We’ve Contributed to the Most Peacekeeping Missions
Okay, so we share this record with Fiji, but we’ve contributed to nearly every peacekeeping mission since those became a thing.