Shelburne County, Nova Scotia


Shelburne County is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

History

Shelburne County was founded in 1784 shortly following the influx of Loyalist settlers evacuated from the newly independent United States of America. It was originally named Port Roseway, until it became a very busy town and was considered to be the capital of Nova Scotia, in which the name was changed to Shelburne in an attempt to please Lord Shelburne, the British Prime Minister from 1782 to 1783. The boundaries of Shelburne County were established by Governor and Council on December 16, 1785.
The first Loyalists arrived in May 1783. They were faced with a somewhat bleak environment in which to make their homes. The land is very rocky with acidic soil. There is also a lot of forest.
The area had previously been settled by French-speaking Catholic Acadians, many of whom had been deported to British Colonies. The new arrivals included Black Loyalists who were given substandard land, particularly around Birchtown. In 1796 about 600 Jamaican Maroons were deported to this area of Nova Scotia as well.
In 1824, at a time when the lines of a number of counties were being cut out and marked, the boundary between Queens and Shelburne Counties was surveyed.
In 1836 Shelburne County was divided into two separate and distinct counties with Yarmouth County being formed out of what had been part of Shelburne County.
In 1854, Shelburne County was divided into two districts for court sessional purposes - Shelburne and Barrington. In 1879, these districts were incorporated as district municipalities.

Demographics

As a census division in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Shelburne County recorded a population of 13,966 living in 6,378 of its 7,765 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 14,496. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2016.
Population trend
CensusPopulationChange
201613,9663.7%
201114,4966.7%
200615,5444.2%
200116,2314.5%
199617,0022.0%
199117,3431.0%
198617,5161.1%
198117,328N/A
194113,251
193112,485
192113,491
191114,105
190114,202
189114,956
188114,913
187112,417N/A

Mother tongue language
LanguagePopulationPct
English only14,05097.91%
French only1551.08%
Non-official languages1100.77%
Multiple responses300.21%

Ethnic Groups
Ethnic OriginPopulationPct
Canadian9,33560.6%
English5,14533.4%
Scottish3,11520.2%
Irish1,91512.4%
German1,80511.7%
French1,2358.0%
Métis9706.3%
Dutch 6804.4%
North American Indian6304.1%

Communities

;Towns
;District municipalities
Highways and numbered routes that run through the county, including external routes that start or finish at the county boundary: