Which country has the most lakes?
Canada has the most lakes in the world. It has an estimated 900,000 or more lakes, and holds more lakes larger than 10 square kilometers than all other countries combined.
Most of Canada's lakes were carved by glaciers during the last Ice Age, which scraped the land and left countless hollows that filled with water. They are especially common on the Canadian Shield, a vast region of ancient rock covering much of central and eastern Canada.
Canada shares four of the five Great Lakes with the United States. Its largest lake entirely within its borders is Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories, followed by Great Slave Lake, the deepest lake in North America at about 614 meters.
Other lake countries
Finland is called the land of a thousand lakes, but it actually has about 188,000 lakes. Russia, the United States and Sweden also have very large numbers. Russia's Lake Baikal is the world's deepest and oldest lake, holding about 20 percent of the world's unfrozen fresh surface water.
Did You Know?
A 2016 study of satellite data estimated Canada has about 62 percent of the world's lakes larger than 10 hectares.