Westport, Nova Scotia is a village in

Digby County, Nova Scotia Digby County is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. History It was named after the Township of Digby; this was named in honour of Rear Admiral Robert Digby, who dispatched HMS ''Atalanta'' to convey Loyalists from New York City ...

and it is located on

Brier Island Brier Island is an island in the Bay of Fundy in Digby County, Nova Scotia. Geography The island is the westernmost part of Nova Scotia and the southern end of the North Mountain ridge with Long Island lying immediately northeast; both islands ...

in the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is the hi ...

. As of 2021, the population was 193.2016 census
Statistics Canada

History

The settlement began with the arrival of David Welch and his family in 1769, as well as the Morrells. This was followed by the arrival of several more

United Empire Loyalist United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America duri ...

families in 1783. The village was incorporated in 1946. A ferry service connects the village with

Freeport, Nova Scotia Freeport is a village in Digby County, Nova Scotia and it is located on Long Island in the Bay of Fundy. At the end of Digby Neck on Long Island, Freeport is a working fishing village nestled around tidal basin. This area is great for bird watchi ...

on Long Island. A second ferry runs from

Digby Neck Digby Neck is a Canadian peninsula extending into the Bay of Fundy in Digby County, Nova Scotia. Digby Neck is the western extension of the North Mountain range from the Annapolis Valley and is made of two thick lava flows. It is separated from ...

to Long Island.

Joshua Slocum Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 – on or shortly after November 14, 1909) was the first person to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Nova Scotian-born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wr ...

, the first person to sail solo around the world, grew up in Westport, where his mother was born. A monument in his memory was built on the southern end of the village. Mathematician

Roland Richardson Roland George Dwight Richardson (born May 14, 1878, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia; died July 17, 1949, Antigonish, Nova Scotia) was a prominent Canadian-American mathematician chiefly known for his work building the math department at Brown University an ...

was the principal of Westport's high school from 1899 to 1902.

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 ...

, Westport had a population of 193 living in 94 of its 119 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 218. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

References

C. Bruce Fergusson, "Westport", ''Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia'' Nova Scotia Archives (1967), p. 727"Brier Island" ''The Davis Family'' online family history
Communities in Digby County, Nova Scotia Villages in Nova Scotia Designated places in Nova Scotia General Service Areas in Nova Scotia {{DigbyNS-geo-stub