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There is a dominant mountain system running from Alaska to Panama, sometimes separated into two or more distinct branches. In Canada it is called the Western Cordillera, consisting of the Pacific Mountains and the Rockies. In Alaska the Rockies are continued as the Brooks Range, and the Pacific Mountains by several ranges, the highest being the Alaska Range. In between them is the Yukon River. In the lower 48 of the United States, the mountains split into a Pacific system--the coastal ranges, Cascades and Sierras--and the Rockies, with intermontane plateaus between them. México also has a split surrounding arid plateaus. The ranges there are the Western (Occidental) and Eastern (Oriental) Sierra Madre, while the extension of the United States's Pacific system is represented by the peninusula of Baja (Lower) California. Farther south in México the Southern Sierra Madre are the only system, continuing under various names, and interrupted by traverse ranges, all the way through Central America. The highest peaks--in Alaska and México--exceed 5,000 meters. Two river systems from the Pacific and one from the Gulf of Mexico cut deep into this terrain.
East of these mountains in Canada and the lower 48 United States are interior plains, starting at the Arctic Ocean and continuing all the way to central Texas. They are bounded along the northeast by a series of large lakes, including the Great Lakes. The Mackenzie River system drains the north part of this area, the Saskatchewan the southern Canadian part and the Mississippi the U.S. part.
Much of eastern Canada comprises the Canadian Shield, including the Canadian Archipelago, and surrounding Hudson Bay in a big 'c'. The St. Lawrence River approximately marks the southeastern border of the shield.
Beyond the archipelago is the world's largest island: Greenland, mostly covered by thick ice left over from the last ice age.
In the eastern lower 48 United States and in southeastern Canada is the Appalachian Mountain system, much lower than the western mountains. It reaches the sea in the north, but further south gives way to a coastal plain. This plain also includes the Florida Peninsula, and extends along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, continuing along the Mexican coast.
East of Meso-America and south and southeast of the United States are several large Caribbean islands, including Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
Some geographies include the State of Hawaii (but not usually the Midway Islands) as part of North America; I include them in Oceania.
Some geographies may include Clipperton Island with Oceania since it is administered by French Polynesia (Polynesie française) but I include it in North America.
More than 400,000 million people live on the continent. In most of Alaska and Canada and in the lower 48 United States, English is the majority language. In México, the Caribbean islands taken as a unit, and in Central America taken as a unit, Spanish is the majority language. In Nunavut, northern Québec and northern Greenland, people first learn to speak dialects of Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit. In southern Greenland, Danish is the main first language. In southern Québec, French predominates. In west central Alaska, dialects of Yupik are the native tongue of most.
The majority religion throughout the continent is Christianity: Protestantism in Greenland, the United States and most of Canada, Catholicism in southern Québec and the Spanish-speaking parts of North America.
There are many cities of over one million on the continent. Among them are the national capitals of Washington, México City, Havana (La Habana in Spanish), Santo Domingo, Guatemala and San José. The two largest cities that are not capitals are Los Angeles and New York. Montréal is the largest city in Francophone Canada. Anglophone Canada has Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto. For a fuller list of cities in the mainland of the United States of America see the table. San Juan is the most important USA city on a Caribbean island.
Alaska
Washington
Oregon
California
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado
Nevada
Utah
Arizona and New Mexico
Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota
Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri
Texas
Oklahoma
Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama
Wisconsin
Illinois
Michigan
Indiana and Ohio
Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia
North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee
New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island
Pennsylvania and New Jersey
Georgia
Florida
Navassa Island, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States and Guantanamo Bay enclave