Inverness County, Nova Scotia

Inverness County is an historical county and census division of Nova Scotia, Canada located on Cape Breton Island. Local government is provided by the Municipality of the County of Inverness, the town of Port Hawkesbury and the Whycocomagh 2 Waycobah First Nation reserve.

History

Established as the County of Juste au Corps in 1835, Inverness County was given its present name in 1837. It was named after Sir Cameron Inverness of Scotland, the land from which many of the early settlers came.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Agriculture and fishing dominated the economy with exports of butter and cattle to Newfoundland and Halifax for most of the nineteenth century.<ref>Robert A. MacKinnon, "The Historical Geography of Agriculture in Nova Scotia, 1851-1951", Ph.D. dissertation, University of British Columbia, 1991.</ref> The construction of the Inverness and Richmond Railway in 1901, and the subsequent opening of coal mines at Port Hood, Mabou, and Inverness, created the "only home market" local farmers had ever had.<ref>Canada, House of Commons, Official Report of Evidence taken During Session of 1921 Respecting the Future Fuel Supply of Canada (Ottawa, 1921), 643-644.</ref>

The boundaries of Inverness County had been previously defined when Cape Breton Island was divided by statute into three districts in 1823. In 1996, the county was amalgamated into a single municipality with the exception of Port Hawkesbury.

Demographics

As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Inverness County had a population of Template:Nts living in Template:Nts of its Template:Nts total private dwellings, a change of Template:Percentage from its 2016 population of Template:Nts. With a land area of Template:Convert, it had a population density of Template:Pop density in 2021.<ref name=2021census>Template:Cite web</ref>

Forming the majority of the Inverness County census division, the Municipality of the County of Inverness, including its Subdivisions A, B, and C, had a population of Template:Val living in Template:Val of its Template:Val total private dwellings, a change of Template:Percentage from its 2016 population of Template:Val. With a land area of Template:Convert, it had a population density of Template:Pop density in 2021.<ref name=2021censusCSD>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2 Population trend<ref>Censuses 1871-1941</ref><ref>Statistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006 census</ref>

Census	Population	Change (%)
2021	17,346	Template:Gain0.6%
2016	17,235	Template:Loss4.0%
2011	17,947	Template:Loss5.7%
2006	19,036	Template:Loss4.5%
2001	19,937	Template:Loss4.7%
1996	20,918	Template:Loss3.2%
1991	21,620	Template:Loss1.5%
1986	21,946	Template:Loss1.8%
1981	22,337	N/A
1941	20,573
1931	21,055
1921	23,808
1911	25,571
1901	24,353
1891	25,779
1881	25,651
1871	23,415	N/A

Template:Col-2 Native language (2011)<ref name="SC2006"/>

Language	Population	Pct (%)
English only	14,360	81.31%
French only	2,315	13.11%
Non-official languages	825	4.67%
Multiple responses	165	0.93%

Template:Col-2 Ethnic groups (2006)<ref name="SC2006-Ethnicity">2006 Statistics Canada Census Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada: Inverness County, Nova Scotia</ref>

Ethnic origin	Population	Pct (%)
Scottish	9,365	49.9%
Canadian	6,460	34.5%
French	4,620	24.6%
English	3,880	20.7%
Irish	3,680	19.6%
Acadian	1,180	6.3%
North American Indian	910	4.9%
German	580	3.1%
Dutch (Netherlands)	555	3.0%

Transport

• Highways
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• Trunk routes
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  • Cabot Trail

• Collector routes:
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See also

• Cabot Trail: scenic route which passes through the area
• Communities in Inverness County
• List of municipalities in Nova Scotia
• People from Inverness County