We all know Canada is huge. But when you render its population as 3D spikes rising from the surface, the answer becomes visceral. Almost everyone lives in a narrow strip hugging the US border.

I built this map using R and rayshader. Each spike represents population density in a given hexagonal cell. Taller and darker = more people.

What Stands Out

• The Golden Horseshoe (Toronto area) towers over everything. Nearly 1 in 4 Canadians lives here.
• Montreal dominates Quebec as a clear second peak.
• Vancouver is squeezed between the Pacific and the mountains.
• Calgary–Edmonton forms a visible dual-spike corridor in Alberta.
• Everything north of ~55°N is essentially flat. Millions of square kilometers, almost nobody.

~90% of Canadians live within 200 km of the US border.

How It's Made

Data: Kontur Population Dataset H3 hexagonal grid with population counts.

This map is part of a larger project (Public Tender Search Engine) Wyszukiwarka przetargów , where we use data visualization and geospatial analysis to explore public procurement and demographic data across countries.