Prince County is located in western

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

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 ...

. The county's defining geographic feature is

Malpeque Bay Malpeque Bay is a estuarine bay on the north shore of Prince Edward Island, Canada. Description Malpeque Bay is the second largest bay in terms of surface area in Prince Edward Island, following Hillsborough Bay. It is also notable for almos ...

, a sub-basin of the

Gulf of St. Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence () is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about and containing about of water, at an average depth of . ...

, which creates the narrowest portion of Prince Edward Island's landmass, an

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmu ...

upon which the city of Summerside is located. The geographic division created by Malpeque Bay is informally augmented by a socio-economic division between the more urban East Prince and rural West Prince, although the line of division generally varies. Much of Prince Edward Island's industrial base is concentrated in the eastern part of the county, with three large frozen French fry manufacturing plants, a potato chip manufacturing plant, and an aerospace industry located at a former air force base. Industrial farming for root crops such as

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es accounts for the majority of rural economic activity, followed by fishing for shellfish such as

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

and

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

. The county was named by Capt. Samuel Holland in 1765 for George, Prince of Wales, who would later become King George IV (1762–1830). As such, Prince County's

shire town A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

was designated as

Princetown Princetown is a villageDespite its name, Princetown is not classed as a town today – it is not included in the County Council's list of the 29 towns in Devon: located within Dartmoor national park in the English county of Devon. It is the p ...

, but the inferior harbour for Prince Royalty saw the settlement pattern change to give this honour to Summerside.

Demographics

As a

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States of America, United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-lev ...

in the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Prince 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.

Transportation

Major Highways

* * * * * *

Municipalities

*Cities ** Summerside *Towns ** Alberton **

Borden-Carleton Borden-Carleton is a town in Prince County in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. It is situated on the south shore fronting on the Northumberland Strait. The town was originally incorporated as a community on April 12, 1995, through ...

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

O'Leary History Ancient The Uí Laoghaire clan, today associated with the Uibh Laoghaire parish in County Cork, is considered by scholars to have originated in the early Middle Ages on the south-west coast, in the area of Ros Ó gCairbre (Rosscarbery), ...

Tignish Tignish is a Canadian town located in Prince County, Prince Edward Island. It is located approximately northwest of the city of Summerside, and northwest of the city of Charlottetown. It has a population of 719. The name "Tignish" is derive ...

*Municipalities **

Abrams Village Abram-Village is a rural municipality in Prince County, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is located in the township of Lot 15, approximately 27 kilometers west of the city of Summerside. Located in the "Evangeline Region", a collection of Fr ...

** Bedeque and Area ** Central Prince ** Elmsdale ** Greenmount-Montrose ** Kinkora ** Linkletter ** Lot 11 and Area **

Miminegash Miminegash is a rural municipality in Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is located northwest of Alberton and southwest of Tignish. It is part of a small area in Lot 3 known as either the ''St. Louis'', '' Palmer Road'', or ''Miminegash'' area. ...

Miscouche Miscouche (2021 population: 992) is a municipality that holds community status in Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is located in Prince County. Incorporated in 1957, Miscouche is located 10 kilometres west of the City of Summerside. Its name i ...

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional count ...

** St. Felix **

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

** Tignish Shore ** Tyne Valley **

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

*Unincorporated communities ** Albany ** Belmont ** Days Corner **

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

** Union Corner *Indian reserves ** Lennox Island 1

References

Community Profile: Prince County, Prince Edward Island; Statistics Canada
{{Subdivisions of Prince Edward Island, counties=yes Counties of Prince Edward Island 1765 establishments in the British Empire

Demographics

Transportation

Major Highways

Municipalities

See also

References