Spallumcheen is a

district municipality A district municipality is a designation for a class of municipalities found in several locations, including Canada, Lithuania, and South Africa. Canada British Columbia Under provincial law, municipalities in British Columbia are to be desig ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. Located in the Okanagan region between Vernon and Enderby, the township had a population of 5,055 and land area of in the Canada 2011 Census. The district, whose official name is the Township of Spallumcheen and which is the oldest rural municipality in the

British Columbia Interior , settlement_type = Region of British Columbia , image_skyline = , nickname = "The Interior" , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivi ...

(incorporated in 1892), consists primarily of agricultural land surrounding the separately incorporated City of

Armstrong Armstrong may refer to: Places * Armstrong Creek (disambiguation), various places Antarctica * Armstrong Reef, Biscoe Islands Argentina * Armstrong, Santa Fe Australia * Armstrong, Victoria Canada * Armstrong, British Columbia * Armstrong ...

. Both Spallumcheen and Armstrong are member municipalities of the Regional District of North Okanagan.

Etymology

The name is derived from a

Shuswap language The Shuswap language (; shs, Secwepemctsín ) is the traditional language of the Shuswap people ( shs, Secwépemc ) of British Columbia. An endangered language, Shuswap is spoken mainly in the Central and Southern Interior of British Columbia b ...

word, either "spil-a-mi-shine" meaning "flat mouth", or "spal-lum-shin" meaning "meadow flat". Another word, ''spalmtsin'', which has an

Okanagan language Okanagan, or Colville-Okanagan, or Nsyilxcən (n̓səl̓xcin̓, n̓syilxčn̓), is a Salish language which arose among the indigenous peoples of the southern Interior Plateau region based primarily in the Okanagan River Basin and the Columbia Ri ...

cognate ''spelemtsin'', means "flat area along edge". Other variations include ''Spellmacheen'' and ''Spallamcheen'', which were the original names used for the

Shuswap River The basin of the Shuswap River (pronounced /ˈʃuːʃwɑːp/) lies northeast of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, originating in the central Monashee Mountains. It is the upper part of the drainage better known to British Columbians as belo ...

, which exits the

Shuswap Highland The Shuswap Highland is a plateau-like hilly area of in British Columbia, Canada. It spans the upland area between the Bonaparte and Thompson Plateaus from the area of Mahood Lake, at the southeast corner of the Cariboo Plateau, southeast towards ...

in this area and heads north to Mara and Shuswap Lakes. The same word is the source of the name of the

Spillimacheen River The Spillimacheen River is a tributary of the Columbia River in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Course The Spillimacheen River originates just east of Glacier National Park. Flowing southeast, it collects the waters of several tributa ...

and the settlement of the same name in the Columbia Valley.Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997

Demographics

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 ...

, Spallumcheen had a population of 5,307 living in 2,036 of its 2,099 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 5,106. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Ethnicity

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Spallumcheen included: * Irreligion (2,925 persons or 55.1%) * Christianity (2,315 persons or 43.6%) **Catholic (345 persons or 6.5%) **United Church (215 persons or 4.1%) **Baptist (135 persons or 2.5%) **Reformed (110 persons or 2.1%) **Anabaptist (65 persons or 1.2%) **Lutheran (65 persons or 1.2%) **Other Christian (1,380 persons or 26.0%) *Other (50 persons or 0.9%)

Notes

References

External links

* District municipalities in British Columbia Populated places in the Okanagan Country Populated places in the Regional District of North Okanagan {{BritishColumbiaInterior-geo-stub