Nova Scotia (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for ''New

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

''; french: Nouvelle-Écosse; gd, Alba Nuadh) is a Canadian

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

located on

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada, and its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Geographically, Nova Scotia is the second smallest province in Canada, with an area of . As of

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, it has a population of 969,383 people.

History

Population geography

Population centres

The Halifax

population centre In demographics, the center of population (or population center) of a region is a geographical point that describes a centerpoint of the region's population. There are several ways of defining such a "center point", leading to different geogr ...

is the largest urban area in Nova Scotia. Statistics Canada recognizes a total of 37 population centres in the province.

Municipalities

Nova Scotia has four regional municipalities.

Towns

Nova Scotia has 26 towns, not including the former Town of

Canso The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) is a representative body of companies that provide air traffic control. It represents the interests of Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). CANSO members are responsible for supporting ov ...

that dissolved to become part of

Guysborough County Guysborough County is a county in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia. History Taking its name from the Guysborough, Nova Scotia, Township of Guysborough, which was named in honour of Sir Guy Carleton, 1st B ...

on July 1, 2012, and the former Towns of

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The Ci ...

and Springhill which dissolved on April 1, 2015.

Ethnic origins

Note: the percentages do not necessarily add up to 100% as multiple responses are allowed. Ethnic origins with less than 2% of the responses are not listed.

Visible minorities and Indigenous peoples

Language

Knowledge of languages

The question on knowledge of languages allows for multiple responses. The following figures are from the 2021 Canadian Census and the 2016 Canadian Census, and lists languages that were selected by at least 0.5 per cent of respondents.

Mother tongue

The 2011 Canadian census showed a population of 921,727.
Of the 904,285 singular responses to the census question concerning mother tongue the most commonly reported languages were: There were also 275 single-language responses for Turkish; 195 for Non-verbal languages (Sign languages); 30 for

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

; 100 for Bantu languages; 70 for

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

; 120 for Slovak; and 5 for Estonian. Figures shown are for the number of single language responses and the percentage of total single-language responses.

Religion

Migration

Immigration

The 2021 census reported that

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

(individuals born outside Canada) comprise 71,570 persons or 7.5 percent of the total population of Nova Scotia.

Recent immigration

The 2021 Canadian census counted a total of 21,385 people who immigrated to Nova Scotia between 2016 and 2021.

Interprovincial migration

From 1971 to 2011,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

had a persistent negative trend in net interprovincial migration. Combined with a declining birth rate, this posed a significant demographic challenge for the province, as its population was projected to decline. The destination for Nova Scotia migrants was most often Ontario, until the turn of the 21st century when Alberta became a more popular destination; New Brunswick ranks as a distant third. ''Source: Statistics Canada''

Employment

As of February 2019, the unemployment rate for the province is 6.4 percent. Halifax Regional Municipality 4.9 percent Unemployment rate

Income

Notes

*A 2011 Census data unavailable, data taken from the

2006 Census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

References

{{People of Canada

Nova Scotia society