Where is Nova Scotia In The World?

Well, Nova Scotia is a provincial area in eastern Canada with Halifax as it provincial capital city.

With a population of 971,395 as of 2019, Nova Scotia is the most populated of Canada’s four Atlantic provinces(along with New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec)that constituted the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

It is the second most populated province in the country and the second most populous province in size, both after neighboring Prince Edward Island.

It covers an area of 55,284 square kilometers (21,345 square miles), including Cape Breton Island and 3,800 other coastal islands.

The peninsula, which forms the mainland of Nova Scotia, is connected to the rest of North America by the isthmus of Cinquiecto, the land border of the province with New Brunswick.

Nova Scotia In Canada

The province borders the Gulf of Fundy in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the south and east, and is separated from Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland Island by the Straits of Northumberland and Cabot, respectively.

Nova Scotia is one of Canada’s maritime provinces (along with New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) and its past and present is closely linked to the maritime life of fishing, shipbuilding and transatlantic shipping.

It was the site of the first permanent European settlement in North America north of Florida when the French founded a fur trade point in 1605 in Port Royal (near present-day Annapolis Royal).

Early researchers gave the area the name Acadia (French: Acadia), which is probably a distortion of the word used by the local Mi’kmaq.

The current name of the province, meaning “Nova Scotia” in Latin, is the result of brief Scottish claims to the region in the 1620s. It covers an area of 21,345 square miles (55,284 square kilometers). Populaton: (2016) 923 598; (2019 – Est.) 971 395.

People Of Nova Scotia

The Mi’kmaq people had occupied the area for centuries before the arrival of the first Europeans in the late 15th century.

Primarily hunters and gatherers, the Mi’kmaq ranged over the Maritime Provinces and into the Gaspé Peninsula and later spread to Newfoundland and New England.

Their Algonquian language is reflected in such Nova Scotian place-names as Musquodoboit, Pugwash, and Shubenacadie. Many of Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq people now live on reservations.

About one-eighth of Nova Scotia’s population is at least partially descended from the Acadian French, some of whom returned from exile after the end of French-English conflict in North America in 1763.

Acadian communities, with a lively Acadian culture, are located in southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island.

Most of the remaining people are descended from settlers from the British Isles and from what is now the United States.

In the second half of the 18th century, settlers from New England (known as Planters) and, later, American colonists loyal to Great Britain during the American Revolution (known as United Empire Loyalists) settled much of western and northern Nova Scotia, with scattered settlements elsewhere.

Settlers from England (Yorkshire) and Scotland populated northern and eastern Nova Scotia; the Scots, who settled in substantial numbers in Cape Breton, gave the province a strong Gaelic culture.

Irish migration, especially in the 19th century, greatly expanded the population of the Halifax region, among others. German immigrants in the 1750s founded the seaport of Lunenburg.

Since the 20th century there have been small migrations of Dutch, Italians, Poles, Arabs, Chinese, South Asians and other peoples, especially to the urban centers of Halifax and Sydney.

The small black population of the province included descendants of slaves brought to the colony in the XVIII century, as well as descendants of loyal black people; Western Indian immigrants contributed to the growth of the black population.

English is the only language spoken by the vast majority of the population.

There are few new Scots who speak only French.

However, both Gaelic and the Mi’kmaq language have experienced a revival in recent years.

About a third of Nova Scotians are Roman Catholics; among Protestant denominations, the United Church of Canada is the largest, followed by the Anglican and Baptist churches.

Urbanization was an important trend in the 20th century, but almost half of Nova Scotia’s residents still live outside the larger communities.

Early European settlement tended to embrace the coastline; the sea provided the main modes of transportation, and the economy was based on fishing, fur trade, and agriculture.

However, even with the development of railroads and improved road conditions in the XIX and XX centuries, the interior of the province remained sparsely populated.

With the decline of shipbuilding and shipping at the end of the XIX century, the coal, steel and textile industries attracted workers in the major centers of Sydney and Halifax, while small towns such as Yarmouth, Windsor, Truro and Amherst, developed small-scale manufacturing and processing industries.

Over the past century and a half, there has been a massive outflow of Nova Scotia residents, first to New England, then to Ontario and the Canadian West.

Economy Of Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia has a diversified economy based on both land and marine resources.

Traditional industries such as fishing, forestry and mining are in decline, while tourism and other services are becoming much more important components of the economy.

Agriculture

Agriculture usually focuses on dairy products, livestock, poultry and eggs, and fruits.

Vast forest resources are supplied by large pulp and paper mills, numerous sawmills, as well as expanding enterprises producing Christmas trees and maple syrup.

Agriculture

Fish catch, processing and export continue to be just as important, but declining industries.

The almost complete destruction of cod stocks has destroyed this traditional component of the fishing industry.

However, lobster, scallops and other clams, along with haddock and herring, remain important catches in Nova Scotia waters. Aquaculture is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the fishing industry.

Resources and power

The mining industry is another major industry in Nova Scotia.

Traditionally, coal was a leading mining product, but many coal mines were closed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Salt and anhydrite production meets a wide demand, and provincial gypsum deposits account for about three-quarters of Canada’s supply.

There are significant resources of barite and building materials such as sand and gravel.

The first tidal power project on the continent, completed in 1984 near Annapolis Royal, uses tides in Fundy Bay to increase hydropower production in the province. Natural gas is injected from wells off Sable Island and is piped to the mainland.

Manufacturing and Processing Services

Food processing and retail, wood and paper industry, metalworking industry and many smaller industries provide a solid manufacturing base for the provincial economy.

However, most of the labor force is employed in public and private services.

Tourism in Nova Scotia

A particularly strong service industry is tourism, which attracts more than one million visitors annually.

More than a quarter of the province’s workforce is employed in knowledge-based services industries such as telecommunications, computer technology and education.

In fact, more Nova Scotians work as professors and university professors than fish processing, forestry, and construction workers combined.

Several Canadian Armed Forces military bases across the province are also important to the economy.

The province’s income comes from two main sources: different provincial taxes and fees and the federal government. Important taxes levied by the province include personal and corporate income tax, sales tax and fuel tax.

Transport and telecommunications

Shipping remains a major enterprise in Nova Scotia.

Point Tupper accommodates the world’s largest oil tankers, while Halifax, a railway terminal and an ice-free year-round port have facilities for all types of vessels, including huge container ships.

Shipping

Other transportation needs are served by a network of paved roads, the road industry, which has largely replaced local rail transportation, as well as the international airport in Halifax and several smaller airports.

Road and passenger ferries run between Nova Scotia and the ports of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and between the American state of Maine.

Nova Scotia has a highly developed, fully digital telecommunications system that has a fiber optic network throughout the province. Cellular phone services and high-speed Internet access are widely available.

Article and Image Credit:

https://www.britannica.com/place/Nova-Scotia