Lunenburg County is a historical county and census division on the South Shore of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Major settlements include Bridgewater, Lunenburg, and Mahone Bay.

History

Named in honour of the British king who was also the duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, it was established in 1759, when the Nova Scotia peninsula was divided into five counties. The county became smaller when new counties were created from its boundaries: Queens (1762), Hants (1781), Shelburne (1784), and Sydney (1784).

By Chapter 52 of the Statutes of 1863, Lunenburg County was divided into two districts for court sessional purposes – Chester and Lunenburg. That statute provided authority for the appointment of a Custos Rotulorum and for the establishment of a general sessions of the peace for the District of Chester, with the same powers as if it were a separate county. In 1879, the two districts were incorporated as district municipalities.

Governance

Today the county has no legal status, although its borders are coincident with the five municipalities contained within it:

  • the municipality of the District of Chester
  • the municipality of the District of Lunenburg
  • the town of Bridgewater
  • the town of Lunenburg
  • the town of Mahone Bay

The above municipalities comprise the entire territory of the county.

There are three Sipekneꞌkatik First Nation reserves in the county:

  • Gold River 21
  • New Ross 20
  • Pennal 19

Demographics

As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Lunenburg County had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Population trend

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Census

! Population

! Change (%)

|-

| 1871

| 23,834

| N/A

|-

| 1881

| 28,583

| 19.93%

|-

| 1891

| 31,075

| 8.72%

|-

| 1901

| 32,389

| 4.23%

|-

| 1911

| 33,260

| 2.69%

|-

| 1921

| 33,742

| 1.45%

|-

| 1931

| 31,674

| 6.13%

|-

| 1941

| 32,942

| 1.45%

|-

| 1981

| 45,746

| N/A

|-

| 1986

| 46,483

| 2.5%

|-

| 1991

| 47,634

| 4.1%

|-

| 1996

| 47,561

| 0.2%

|-

| 2001

| 47,591

| 0.1%

|-

| 2006

| 47,150

| 0.9%

|-

| 2011

| 47,313

| 0.3%

|-

| 2016

| 47,126

| 0.4%

|-

| 2021

| 48,599

| 3.1%

|}

Mother tongue language (2011)

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Language

! Population

! Pct (%)

|-

| English only

| 45,305

| 96.83%

|-

| French only

| 525

| 1.12%

|-

| Other languages

| 805

| 1.72%

|-

| Multiple responses

| 150

| 0.32%

|}

Ethnic Groups (2006)

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Ethnic Origin

! Population

! Pct (%)

|-

| Canadian

| 19,265

| 41.3%

|-

| German

| 16,290

| 34.9%

|-

| English

| 13,405

| 28.8%

|-

| Scottish

| 8,655

| 18.6%

|-

| French

| 6,360

| 13.6%

|-

| Irish

| 6,155

| 13.2%

|-

| Dutch

| 3,105

| 6.7%

|-

| Indigenous

| 1,930

| 4.1%

|-

| Welsh

| 1,000

| 2.1%

|}

Religious make-up (2001)

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Religion

! Population

! Pct (%)

|-

| Protestant

| 34,220

| 72.80%

|-

| No religion

| 6,810

| 14.49%

|-

| Catholic

| 5,230

| 11.13%

|-

| Other Christian

| 535

| 1.14%

|-

| Muslim

| 80

| 0.17%

|-

| Jewish

| 70

| 0.15%

|-

| Christian Orthodox

| 20

| 0.04%

|-

| Hindu

| 20

| 0.04%

|-

| Buddhist

| 15

| 0.03%

|-

| Other religions

| 10

| 0.02%

|}

Access routes

Highways and numbered routes that run through the county, including external routes that start or finish at the county boundary:

  • Highways
  • Trunk Routes
  • Collector Routes:
  • External Routes:
  • None

See also

  • List of communities in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia
  • List of communities in Nova Scotia
  • Lunenburg English, the distinctive dialect of the area

References

Further reading

  • Photographs of historic monuments in Lunenburg County
  • Lunenburg County Map