Manitoba (i/ˌmænᵻˈtoʊbə/) is a province located at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is one of the three prairie provinces and is the fifth-most populous province in Canada, with a population of 1,208,268 as of 2011. Manitoba covers an area of 649,950 square kilometres (250,900 sq mi) with a widely varied landscape; the southern and western regions are predominantly prairie grassland, the eastern and northern regions are dominated by the Canadian Shield, and the far northern regions along the Hudson Bay coast are arctic tundra. Manitoba is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territory of Nunavut to the north, and the US states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south.
More than 90% of Manitoba's population lives within the far southern regions of the province, where its arable land and largest cities are located. The northern region of Manitoba, which encompasses nearly 70% the province's total area, is mostly undeveloped consisting primarily of remote and isolated communities amongst vast wilderness.Winnipeg is the capital and most populous city in Manitoba by a significant margin, with 730,018 people residing in the Winnipeg Capital Region. Other cities in the province are Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Thompson, Winkler, Selkirk, Dauphin, Morden, and Flin Flon.