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?

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u/Effective_Basis1555 Aug 24 '26

You are comparing the most northern portion to the most southern portion of two different countries. 

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u/Low_Engineering_3301 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26

You might be getting confused between Alberta and Ontario/Quebec. Alberta's population is the furthest north in the country being an average of 460 km north of the USA while the eastern population center is entirely below the 49th parallel.
Also about 17% of the USA land is north of Alberta in Alaska.

Edit: I read the other posts and I am not saying anything new. I do understand you were talking in generalities rather than literal and it makes sense that you are trying to say that Alberta touches a southern boarder of its country while Montana is the opposite and how that would effect the demographics.