About the Great Lakes St. Lawrence River Basin
The Great Lakes Basin
The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin is the single largest watershed in the world, ranging from Trois-Rivières, Québec to beyond the western point of Lake Superior. It contains more than 20% of the world's supply of surface fresh water and about 84% of North America's surface fresh water.
The Basin is located within the U.S. States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as well as the Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Québec. It contains over 94,000 square miles (243,459 square kilometers) of surface water, and is the world's largest inland waterway system, extending over 3,800 miles (6,116 kilometers).
Get to Know the Great Lakes
Many schoolchildren are taught to remember the names of the five Great Lakes by using the mnemonic device HOMES.
More than 40 million people rely on the Basin for their primary water source. This is roughly 10% of the U.S. population and more than 30% of the Canadian population.
If it were its own country, the region would be the world’s third largest economy, generating about US$6 trillion annually. For more than a century, the region has been a center for manufacturing, international shipping, and innovative research and development.
The region alone accounts for more than 50% of all U.S./Canadian bilateral border trade and sees over 200 million tons of cargo shipped annually. The region is also home to more than 51 million jobs.