Question
 

I have been told that 90% of all canadians
live with in 50 miles of the US border.Does
anyone know if this is true.

According to the CIA fact book on Canada, roughly 90% of the population lives within 160 kilometers of the US border.

Are they ever wrong?

It's actually 200 miles, not 50, and yes it is true. The further north, the more severe the climate gets. It is a more comfortable climate further south in Canada.

Mazey's right. But almost 75% live within 160 K's or 100 miles.

interesting question - what makes you ask?

It's especially true of the eastern part of the country, not as true in the west.
For example, Calgary and Edmonton, both cities of nearly a million people each (totalling about 6 to 7% of the population of Canada) are both further away than that. Calgary is approx 210 km (140 miles) north of the border, and Edmonton is another 300 km (185 miles) north of Calgary.

The U.S./Canada border in the west is at the 49th parallel, while in the eastern part of the country it meanders all over the place, and dips as far south as 42 degrees north in the Niagara Peninsula - that's the latitude of northern California, and further south than Boston, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Seattle !!!

A somewhat inane senior in high school who lived down the street from me a few years ago had to write a term paper for some high school class.

She decided to write it on the population of Canada. She barely knew where Canada was and did very little literature searching to gain vital facts.

She also had a nerdy younger brother who was much like that youngest child in Foxtrot, the one who is always up to something to get his sister but good.

The term paper was bad enough before her brother got hold of it. It started out something like this.

Canada does not have a lot of population. What population it does have is in the south. This is because of the United States. In the north, there is not much population because it is too cold to have much.

Well you get the idea. Her younger brother somehow convinced her that changing the first p in population to a c would make the paper more erudite.
It might even improve her grade.

Well, she did, and the results were both spread and exaggerated.

I have read this statistic a number of times but each time I see it the distance from the US border seems to change. I think I've read everything from 50 miles to 200+ miles so never quite know what to believe.