Inverness County, Nova Scotia

This article is about the historical county. For the modern municipality, see Municipality of the County of Inverness.

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.

Inverness County Comté d'Inverness (French) Siorramachd Inbhir Nis (Scottish Gaelic)
County
Cabot Trail seen from the Skyline Trail
Location of Inverness County, Nova Scotia
Coordinates: 46.2°N 61.1°W / 46.2; -61.1
Country	Canada
Province	Nova Scotia
Towns	Port Hawkesbury
Established as Juste au Corps	1835
Renamed Inverness	1837
Incorporated	17 April, 1879
Electoral Districts       Federal	Cape Breton—Canso / Sydney—Victoria
Provincial	Inverness
Government
• Type	Municipality of the County of Inverness
Area [1]
• Land	3,831.17 km2 (1,479.22 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]
• Total	17,346
• Density	4.5/km2 (12/sq mi)
• Change 2016-21	0.6%
Time zone	UTC-4 (AST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-3 (ADT)
Area code	902
Dwellings	9,876
Median Income*	$45,687 CDN
Median household income, 2005 (all households)

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.^[3] Agriculture and fishing dominated the economy with exports of butter and cattle to Newfoundland and Halifax for most of the nineteenth century.^[4] 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.^[5]

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 17,346 living in 7,693 of its 9,737 total private dwellings, a change of 0.6% from its 2016 population of 17,235. With a land area of 3,817.61 km² (1,473.99 sq mi), it had a population density of 4.5/km² (11.8/sq mi) in 2021.^[6]

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 13,239 living in 5,989 of its 7,914 total private dwellings, a change of 0.5% from its 2016 population of 13,170. With a land area of 3,795.34 km² (1,465.39 sq mi), it had a population density of 3.5/km² (9.0/sq mi) in 2021.^[7]

Population trend[8][9] Census Population Change (%) 2021 17,346 0.6% 2016 17,235 4.0% 2011 17,947 5.7% 2006 19,036 4.5% 2001 19,937 4.7% 1996 20,918 3.2% 1991 21,620 1.5% 1986 21,946 1.8% 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

Native language (2011)[1] 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%

Ethnic groups (2006)[10] 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 Hwy 105 (TCH)

Trunk routes Trunk 4 Trunk 19 Cabot Trail

Collector routes: Route 219 Route 223 Route 252 Route 395

See also

• Canada portal
• Nova Scotia portal

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