Compare key data on Australia & Canada

Both Australia and Canada are members of the Commonwealth of Nations and therefore share Queen Elizabeth II as monarch and head of state. While Canada is a part of a larger land mass, Australia is mainly an island continent but also comprises Tasmania and several smaller islands. It is the sixth largest country by land mass. Canada is the second largest country by area and is washed by the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans.

Australia was originally inhabited by indigenous people who spoke several different languages. This settlement existed for some forty thousand years before the British settled there in the 18th century. However, the country was settled by the Dutch prior to that in 1606. Canada as it is now has been inhabited by Aboriginal people for hundreds of years. Both British and French colonies were set up on the east coast. Canada as it is today, was formed on July 1, 1867 when three British colonies joined to form the federal dominion of Canada. The federation of Australia was formed on January 1, 1901, when the original six colonies were federated.

Canada’s nearest neighbours are the United States to the south, Alaska to the northwest and Greenland to the northeast while Australia’s nearest neighbours are Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Gineau to the north, the Solomon islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the northeast and New Zealand to the southeast.

Both Australia and Canada operate as a federal parliamentary democracy and are constitutional monarchies.