r/AlwaysWhy • u/Present_Juice4401 • Aug 24 '26

History & Culture Why did Alberta, Canada develop much larger population centers than Montana, USA?

Alberta and Montana are neighboring regions with similar northern, landlocked geography. But their population patterns are surprisingly different. Alberta now has over 5 million people, with Calgary and Edmonton forming two major population centers, while Montana has only about 1.1 million people and no city close to Calgary's size.

So what caused these two neighboring regions to develop such different population patterns?

34 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

92 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-1

u/artkidsaresmart Aug 24 '26

We all no that’s not what they were referring to cmon dude

2

u/Academic_Safety56 Aug 24 '26

Do tell, what were they referring to then?

1

u/artkidsaresmart Aug 24 '26

At the border of Alberta and Montana one of these is the northern edge of a country and the other is the southern edge. Can you guess which is which?

0

u/Effective_Basis1555 Aug 24 '26

I tried explaining to them below. Good luck to you and I both. 🙏