The extended federal and provincial quasi-administrative regions of Northern Ontario have their own boundaries even further south in the transitional area that vary according to their respective government policies and requirements.

Nipissing Stipendiary Magistrate and land registrar William Doran established his residence at North Bay in 1885.

By 1899 there were seven northern districts: Algoma, Manitoulin, Muskoka, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Rainy River, and Thunder Bay.

Statistically, the districts in Northern Ontario (which appear in red on the location map) are Rainy River, Kenora, Thunder Bay, Cochrane, Timiskaming, Algoma, Sudbury, Nipissing and Manitoulin.

In order of population as of the Canada 2021 Census, they are: It is important to note that in the Province of Ontario there are no requirements to become a city and the designation is voluntary.

Sudbury's economy, in which the largest sectors of employment are government-related fields such as education and health care, is somewhat more diversified than Thunder Bay's, which is still based primarily on natural resources and manufacturing.

Mining and forestry are the two major industries in the region, although manufacturing, transportation, public services and tourism are represented as well.

As well, many of Northern Ontario's major tourist attractions (e.g. Science North, Dynamic Earth, the Sault Locks, etc.)

McFaulds Lake in the James Bay Lowlands has attracted the attention of junior mining exploration companies.

Marie, where longtime incumbent MP Tony Martin was defeated despite that election's historic increase in NDP support nationwide; in the 2015 election, however, a resurgence of Liberal support under Justin Trudeau resulted in the Liberals regaining all of the region's seats except Timmins-James Bay and Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, where the NDP incumbents were successfully re-elected.

Major political issues in recent years have included the economic health of the region, the extension of Highway 400 from Parry Sound to Sudbury, issues pertaining to the quality and availability of health care services, mining development in the Ring of Fire region around McFaulds Lake, the closure of Ontario Northland, the Algo Centre Mall roof collapse of 2012, and a controversial but now-defunct plan to ship Toronto's garbage to the Adams Mine, an abandoned open pit mine in Kirkland Lake.

[8] Ongoing high unemployment, lack of awareness of or concern for Northern Ontario's problems, and difficulties in achieving economic diversification have led to discontent amongst Northern Ontarians; throughout the region's history, there have been various movements proposing that the region secede from Ontario to form its own separate province or territory within Canada.

[3] The first to raise the issue of secession was Simon James Dawson in 1875, then the representative of the Algoma district in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

[3] In 1966, a committee of mayors from the region, comprising Max Silverman of Sudbury, G. W. Maybury of Kapuskasing, Ernest Reid of Fort William, Leo Del Villano of Timmins, Merle Dickerson of North Bay and Leo Foucault of Espanola, formed to study the feasibility of Northern Ontario forming a new province.

The crisis in the Ontario forest industry, and the perceived inaction by the provincial government, has in particular spurred support for the idea of secession.

While also stopping short of advocating for full independence, Sudbury's Northern Life community newspaper published a number of editorials in the 2010s calling on the province to create a new level of supraregional government that would give the Northern Ontario region significantly more autonomy over its own affairs within the province.

The region boasts extensive snowmobiling trails and many lakes are dotted with ice hut villages throughout the winter.

Many communities host festivals celebrating local ethnic groups such as French, Métis, First Nations, Finnish, and Italian.

Italian cuisine has had an influence on the culture of Northeastern Ontario, with porchetta considered a culinary signature of Sudbury and Sault Ste.

[25][26][27] Although maple syrup is not produced in most of Northern Ontario, it is still made in some areas near North Bay, Sudbury, Manitoulin Island, and Sault Ste.

In fact, Northern Ontario is the only provincial or territorial subregion in Canada that sends its own teams to the Brier and the Tournament of Hearts separately from its province.

Marie Greyhounds, and Sudbury Wolves play in the Ontario Hockey League at the Major Junior level.

The Algoma Thunderbirds, Lakehead Thunderwolves, Laurentian Voyageurs, and Nipissing Lakers compete in U Sports as members of Ontario University Athletics.

Community newspapers include Northern Life in Sudbury, Northern News in Kirkland Lake, Thunder Bay's Source, the Dryden Observer, Sault This Week, the Mid-North Monitor in Espanola, the Manitoulin Expositor on Manitoulin Island and the Village Media network of web hyperlocals.

Noted magazines published in the region include HighGrader, Northern Ontario Business and Sudbury Living.

The mining boom of the early twentieth century attracted many francophones to Northeastern Ontario, and French is still widely spoken there.

However, the Pro-Cathedral of the Assumption in North Bay acts as the unofficial Episcopal See for the Diocese of Sault Sainte Marie.

Television series The Red Green Show (1991–2005) and its spinoff theatrical film Duct Tape Forever (2002) are set in the fictional town of Possum Lake.

The animated sitcom Chilly Beach (2003–2008, CBC), set in a fictional town of unspecified location in Northern Canada, was produced in Sudbury.

In the comic strip For Better or For Worse, Elizabeth Patterson attended North Bay's Nipissing University, and subsequently taught school in the fictional reserve of Mtigwaki on Lake Nipigon.