Canada has the largest total area of freshwater lakes of any country.
Its enormous freshwater surface is spread across millions of lakes, including parts of the Great Lakes along the United States border. Canada’s lake area is one reason its total area is close to 10 million square kilometres, even though its land surface is considerably smaller.
The country contains lakes of many sizes, from small glacial ponds to enormous basins such as Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. Glaciers repeatedly scoured the landscape during the last ice ages, leaving depressions that later filled with water.
Canada is also associated with Lake Superior, the world’s largest freshwater lake by surface area, although the lake is shared with the United States. “Largest number of lakes” and “largest lake area” are related but different claims; Canada is widely recognized for both.