Charlotte County, New Brunswick
County in New Brunswick, Canada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charlotte County (2021 population 26,015[2]) is the most southwestern county of New Brunswick, Canada.
Charlotte County
Comté de Charlotte | |
|---|---|
| |
 Location within New Brunswick | |
| Coordinates: 45°10′N 66°50′W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | New Brunswick |
| Established | 1785 |
| Named after | Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz[1] |
| Area | |
| • Land | 3,418.24 km2 (1,319.79 sq mi) |
| Population (2021)[2] | |
• Total | 26,015 |
| • Density | 7.6/km2 (20/sq mi) |
| • Pop 2016-2021 |  2.3% |
| • Dwellings | 13,449 |
| Time zone | UTC−04:00 (AST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−03:00 (ADT) |
| Area code | 506 |
It was formed in 1784 when New Brunswick was partitioned from Nova Scotia[3] and named for Queen Charlotte.[4] Once a layer of local government, the county government was abolished with the New Brunswick Equal Opportunity program in 1966. Counties continue to be used as census subdivisions by Statistics Canada.
Located in the southwestern corner of the province, bordering the U.S. state of Maine, Charlotte County is at the northern end of the Appalachian Mountains, which gives it a rugged terrain that includes Mount Pleasant. The St. Croix, Magaguadavic, and Digdegaush rivers drain into the Bay of Fundy. The county includes the large, populated islands of Grand Manan, White Head, Deer Island, and Campobello.
Eighteen per cent of the workforce is employed in aquaculture. Connors Bros., the largest sardine canning facility in North America, is located in Blacks Harbour. Cooke Aquaculture is an Atlantic salmon farming company, founded and headquartered in St. George. A paper mill, operated by J.D. Irving, Limited, is in Utopia, and Flakeboard Co. Ltd. operates outside St. Stephen. Ganong Bros., Canada's oldest chocolate company, maintains its factory in St. Stephen.
Governance is provided by New Brunswick municipalities for the towns of Saint Andrews, St. George, and St. Stephen, the villages of Grand Manan and Blacks Harbour, and the rural community of Campobello Island. The remaining parts of the county are administered as local service districts of the Southwest New Brunswick Regional Service Commission, except Clarendon, which is part of RSC 11 in neighbouring Sunbury County.
History
Once the international border was delineated in Charlotte County and its islands, the area quickly became one of the foremost smuggling locales in the North Atlantic, compared to St. Marys, Georgia and the German Heligoland archipelago.[5][6][7] In 1998, RCMP busted a smuggling operation by Seamus Skinner valued at forty million dollars.[8]
Journalist John Edward Belliveau wrote that the county's residents "are distinctly oriented toward the American yankees who have always been their neighbours…detached from the rest of the province, they are independent and because they do not come in contact with the French-speaking areas they have not been concerned with French/English issues.".[9]
Demographics
As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Charlotte County had a population of 26,015 living in 11,560 of its 13,449 total private dwellings, a change of 2.3% from its 2016 population of 25,428. With a land area of 3,418.24 km2 (1,319.79 sq mi), it had a population density of 7.6/km2 (19.7/sq mi) in 2021.[2]
| 2021 | 2016 | 2011 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 26,015 (+2.3% from 2016) | 25,428 (-4.2% from 2011) | 26,549 (-1.3% from 2006) |
| Land area | 3,418.24 km2 (1,319.79 sq mi) | 3,426.97 km2 (1,323.16 sq mi) | 3,424.33 km2 (1,322.14 sq mi) |
| Population density | 7.6/km2 (20/sq mi) | 7.4/km2 (19/sq mi) | 7.8/km2 (20/sq mi) |
| Median age | 49.6 (M: 48.8, F: 50.4) | 47.9 (M: 47.0, F: 48.8) | 45.1 (M: 44.0, F: 46.0) |
| Private dwellings | 13,449 (total) 11,560 (occupied) | 13,513 (total) | 13,486 (total) |
| Median household income | $67,500 | $55,701 | $48,953 |
Population by census subdivision
| Official name | Designation | Area: km2 (sq mi) | 2016 population[13] |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Stephen | Town | 13.52 (5.22) | 4,415 |
| Grand Manan | Village | 152.77 (58.98) | 2,360 |
| Saint Andrews | Town | 8.35 (3.22) | 1,786 |
| St. George | Town | 16.17 (6.24) | 1,517 |
| Saint George | Parish | 2,141 | |
| Pennfield | Parish | 2,170 | |
| Saint Stephen | Parish | 1,839 | |
| Saint David | Parish | 1,529 | |
| Saint James | Parish | 1,186 | |
| Fundy Bay | LSD | 60.24 | 1,167 |
| Dennis-Weston | LSD | 43.94 | 1,023 |
| Blacks Harbour | Village | 9.06 (3.50) | 894 |
| Campobello Island | Rural community | 39.67 (15.32) | 872 |
| West Isles | Parish | 797 | |
| Lepreau | Parish | 707 | |
| Saint Patrick | Parish | 689 | |
| Saint Croix | Parish | 657 | |
| Dufferin | Parish | 573 | |
| Saint Andrews | Parish | 553 | |
| Western Charlotte part B | LSD | 28.97 | 534 |
| Western Charlotte part A | LSD | 162.3 | 435 |
| Dumbarton | Parish | 335 | |
| Beaver Harbour | LSD | 2.25 | 277 |
| Grand Manan | Parish | 145 | |
| Clarendon | Parish | 63 |
Language
| Canada Census Mother Tongue - Charlotte County, New Brunswick[10] | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Total | English |
French |
English & French |
Non-official languages | |||||||||||||
| Year | Responses | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | |||||
2016 |
25,115 |
23,850 |  4.9% |
94.96% | 580 | 5.2% |
2.31% | 50 | 10.0% |
0.21% | 570 | 12.9% |
2.27% | |||||
2011 |
26,185 |
25,015 | 2.4% |
95.53% | 610 | 7.0% |
2.33% | 55 | 120.0% |
0.21% | 505 | 26.3% |
1.93% | |||||
2006 |
26,620 |
25,625 | 1.8% |
96.26% | 570 | 15.6% |
2.14% | 25 | 28.6% |
0.10% | 400 | 90.5% |
1.50% | |||||
2001 |
27,020 |
26,100 | 0.2% |
96.59% | 675 | 23.9% |
2.50% | 35 | 22.2% |
0.13% | 210 | 16.0% |
0.78% | |||||
1996 |
26,990 |
26,150 | n/a | 96.89% | 545 | n/a | 2.02% | 45 | n/a | 0.17% | 250 | n/a | 0.93% | |||||
Infrastructure
Power generation
Hydroelectric dams operate in St. George and St. Stephen at Milltown, though the latter is currently being decommissioned.
Major highways
See also
- Charlotte County Militia
- List of communities in New Brunswick
- List of historic places in Charlotte County, New Brunswick
- List of people from Charlotte County, New Brunswick
- Disputed areas with the United States: Machias Seal Island, North Rock
- List of parishes in New Brunswick
- Royal eponyms in Canada