If you would like know all the states in Canada, read this article to the end. Here, I am going to make it very clear so that you will be able to differentiate which ones are provinces, States, municipalities and towns in the country, as many persons assumes every location to be state.
A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state.
A town is a populated area with fixed boundaries and a local government. A city is a large or important town. See Remote jobs in Canada.
A municipality is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been established to provide general local government for a specific population concentration in a defined area.
States in Canada
Canada has ten provinces and three territories. Each province and territory has its own capital city. You should know the capital of your province or territory as well as that of Canada.
Those provinces and territories in Canada are as shown below:
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Nova Scotia
- Nunavut
- Ontario
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
- Saskatchewan
- Yukon
Postal Abbreviations of Provinces and Territories of Canada
| Province or Territory | Postal and ISO 3166‑2:CA abbreviation | Traditional abbreviation (English) | Traditional abbreviation (French) | Notes |
| Alberta | AB | Alta. | Alb. | |
| British Columbia | BC | B.C. | C.-B. | C.-B. is short for Colombie-Britannique |
| Manitoba | MB | Man. | Man. | |
| New Brunswick | NB | N.B. | N.-B. | N.-B. is short for Nouveau-Brunswick. |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | NL | Nfld., Lab. N.L. | T.-N.-L. | Previously Nfld. and T.-N. for Newfoundland before the change of name of the province occurred on December 6, 2001. T.-N. is short for Terre-Neuve. T.-N.-L. is short for Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador. NF was the two-letter abbreviation used before the province’s name changed to Newfoundland and Labrador. LB was commonly used for Labrador—the mainland part of the province—prior to 2002. It was an official code available for optional use in lieu of NF and was listed in the Canada Postal Guide. |
| Northwest Territories | NT | N.W.T. | T.N.-O. | T.N.-O. is short for Territoires du Nord-Ouest. |
| Nova Scotia | NS | N.S. | N.-É. | N.-É. is short for Nouvelle-Écosse. |
| Nunavut | NU | Nvt. | Nt | These traditional abbreviations are not listed by Natural Resources Canada and TERMIUM Plus, both of which only used NU. |
| Ontario | ON | Ont. | Ont. | O. was not uncommon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for either Ontario or Ohio. An assumption of intranational context was often the only disambiguating factor in that era. |
| Prince Edward Island | PE | P.E.I. | Î.-P.-É. | Î.-P.-É. is short for Île du Prince-Édouard. |
| Quebec | QC | Que. | PQ | Also P.Q. is unofficially used, short for Province du Québec. Later, PQ evolved from P.Q. as the first two-letter non-punctuated abbreviation. Later still, QC evolved as the second two-letter non-punctuated abbreviation, making Quebec’s abbreviation consistent with other provinces insofar as using letters solely from the name of the province, but not the word “province”, as PQ did. New York State and New York City use QB to identify Quebec vehicle licence plates. |
| Saskatchewan | SK | Sask. | Sask. | |
| Yukon | YT | Yuk. | Yn | YK is common but not official. It is used as the second-level country code domain (.yk.ca). ISO-3166-2 lists YT as official. |
What is the difference between Canadian provinces and territories?
The difference between Canadian provinces and territories is one of government: provinces have more control over their own government than territories do. In case of any other questions about states in Canada, make sure you use
