Charlotte County, New Brunswick

Charlotte County
Comté de Charlotte
County courthouse and jail
Location within New Brunswick
Location within New Brunswick
Coordinates: 45°10′N 66°50′W / 45.167°N 66.833°W / 45.167; -66.833
CountryCanada
ProvinceNew Brunswick
Established1785
Named forCharlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Area
 • Land3,426.97 km2 (1,323.16 sq mi)
Population
 (2016)[1]
 • Total25,428
 • Density7.4/km2 (19/sq mi)
 • Pop 2011-2016
Decrease 4.2%
 • Dwellings
13,513
Time zoneUTC−04:00 (AST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−03:00 (ADT)
Area code506

Charlotte County (2016 population 25,428[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 seat 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 US 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 JD Irving, is in Utopia, and Flakeboard Co. Ltd. operates outside of St. Stephen. Ganong Bros., Canada's oldest chocolate company, maintains its factory in St. Stephen.

Governance is in the form of New Brunswick municipalities in the case of the towns of St. 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.

  1. ^ a b c "Census Profile, 2016 Census: Charlotte, County [Census division], New Brunswick". Statistics Canada. February 8, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  2. ^ Slumkoski, Corey (2005). "The Partition of Nova Scotia". The Winslow Papers. Electronic text centre (UNB Libraries). Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  3. ^ "Charlotte County", Place Names of New Brunswick: Where is Home? New Brunswick Communities Past and Present, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, retrieved August 13, 2023