Charlotte County
County
Native nameComté de Charlotte
CountryCanada
ProvinceNew Brunswick
Established1785
Named forCharlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Unit prefMetric
Area land3,418.24 km²
Population as of2021
Population total26,015
Population density7.6 km²
Pop 2016-20212.3%
Dwellings13,449
Time zoneAST (UTC−04:00)
Time zone (DST)ADT (UTC−03:00)
Coordinates45°10′N 66°50′W
Area code506

Charlotte County (2021 population 26,015[1]) is the most southwestern county of New Brunswick, Canada.

It was formed in 1784 when New Brunswick was partitioned from Nova Scotia[2] and named for Queen Charlotte.[3] 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.[4][5][6] In 1998, RCMP busted a smuggling operation by Seamus Skinner valued at forty million dollars.[7]

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 2.31% 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 in 2021.[1]

Population by census subdivision

Official nameDesignationArea: km2 (sq mi)2016 population[8]
St. StephenTown13.52 (5.22)4,415
Grand MananVillage152.77 (58.98)2,360
Saint AndrewsTown8.35 (3.22)1,786
St. GeorgeTown16.17 (6.24)1,517
Saint GeorgeParish2,141
PennfieldParish2,170
Saint StephenParish1,839
Saint DavidParish1,529
Saint JamesParish1,186
Fundy BayLSD60.241,167
Dennis-WestonLSD43.941,023
Blacks HarbourVillage9.06 (3.50)894
Campobello IslandRural community39.67 (15.32)872
West IslesParish797
LepreauParish707
Saint PatrickParish689
Saint CroixParish657
DufferinParish573
Saint AndrewsParish553
Western Charlotte part BLSD28.97534
Western Charlotte part ALSD162.3435
DumbartonParish335
Beaver HarbourLSD2.25277
Grand MananParish145
ClarendonParish63

Language

Canada Census Mother Tongue - Charlotte County, New Brunswick[9]
CensusTotal
English
French
English & French
Non-official languages
YearResponsesCountTrendPop %CountTrendPop %CountTrendPop %CountTrendPop %
2016
25,115
23,8504.9%94.96%5805.2%2.31%5010.0%0.21%57012.9%2.27%
2011
26,185
25,0152.4%95.53%6107.0%2.33%55120.0%0.21%50526.3%1.93%
2006
26,620
25,6251.8%96.26%57015.6%2.14%2528.6%0.10%40090.5%1.50%
2001
27,020
26,1000.2%96.59%67523.9%2.50%3522.2%0.13%21016.0%0.78%
1996
26,990
26,150n/a96.89%545n/a2.02%45n/a0.17%250n/a0.93%

Infrastructure

Power generation

Hydroelectric dams operate in St. George and St. Stephen at Milltown, though the latter is currently being decommissioned.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Population and dwelling counts: Canada and census divisions". Statistics Canada. February 9, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  2. ^ Slumkoski, Corey (2005). "The Partition of Nova Scotia". The Winslow Papers. Electronic text centre (UNB Libraries). Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  3. ^ "Charlotte County", "Place Names of New Brunswick: Where is Home? New Brunswick Communities Past and Present", Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, retrieved 13 August 2023
  4. ^ https://muse.jhu.edu/article/632913
  5. ^ Petty Justice: Low Law and the Sessions System in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, 1785–1867 by Paul Craven
  6. ^ Smith, Joshua M. (14 October 2019). Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783-1820. University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-6523-6.
  7. ^ Schneider, Stephen (March 2004). "MONEY LAUNDERING IN CANADA: AN ANALYSIS OF RCMP CASES". Government of British Columbia. p. 43. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
  8. ^ cp2016
  9. ^ Statistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 census