Cape Breton County is one of eighteen

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in the Canadian

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. It is located on Cape Breton Island. From 1879 to 1995, the area of the county excluded from towns and cities was incorporated as the Municipality of the County of Cape Breton to provide local government services. Since 1995 the only municipality in the county has been a single-tier municipality called

Cape Breton Regional Municipality Cape Breton Regional Municipality (often referred to as simply "CBRM") is the Canadian province of Nova Scotia's second largest municipality and the economic heart of Cape Breton Island. As of 2016 the municipality has a population of 94,285. The ...

. For statistical purposes, the

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

reserves of

Eskasoni 3 Eskasoni 3 (2021 population: 3,521) is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia. It is administratively part of the Eskasoni First Nation The Eskasoni Mi'kmaw Nation is a band government of the Mi'kmaq Nation, located in Un ...

and

Membertou 28B Membertou 28B is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia. It is administratively part of the Membertou First Nation The Membertou First Nation is a Mi'kmaq First Nation band government in the tribal district of Unama'ki, also ...

are included in the county, but are separate entities.

History

Taking its name from Cape Breton, the most easterly point of the island which was called after the

Bretons The Bretons (; br, Bretoned or ''Vretoned,'' ) are a Celtic ethnic group native to Brittany. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brittonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwall and Devon, mo ...

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

, the county has what is probably the oldest surviving European name to have been used to designate part of North America. By proclamation of October 17, 1763 after termination of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

, Cape Breton Island was formally annexed to Nova Scotia. For a time thereafter Cape Breton Island was part of Halifax County. On December 10, 1765, Cape Breton Island was set apart as a separate county under the name Cape Breton County. From 1784 to 1820, Cape Breton Island was established as a separate

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

with a Lieutenant Governor and a nominated Executive Council, but without an elected house of assembly. Not until after Cape Breton Island was re-annexed to Nova Scotia in 1820 did it receive representation in an elected legislature. Although subdivided into three districts in 1824, Cape Breton County was co-extensive with Cape Breton Island from 1820 to 1835 when the county was divided into three separate and distinct counties: * Cape Breton (Northeastern District) * Richmond (Southern District) later called

Richmond County Richmond County may refer to places: Australia *Richmond County, New South Wales, a cadastral division Canada *Richmond County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom *Richmondshire, the original Richmond County in Yorkshire, England United States ...

* Juste au Corps (Northwest District) later called Inverness County In 1851, Victoria County was formed out of the northeastern part of Cape Breton County and a year later, in 1852, the present boundaries of Cape Breton County were defined by the colonial government in Halifax.

Demographics

As a census division 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, Cape Breton County had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Transportation

Major highways

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Municipal government

Cape Breton County had several incorporated municipalities within its boundaries: * City of Sydney (1904-1995) * Town of Glace Bay (1901-1995) * Town of New Waterford (1913-1995) * Town of North Sydney (1885-1995) * Town of Sydney Mines (1889-1995) * Town of Louisbourg (1901-1995) * Town of Dominion (1906-1995) * Municipality of the County of Cape Breton (1879-1995) In the early 1990s the provincial government began to examine duplication of municipal services in Nova Scotia. One of the recommendations arising from this study was that all of Cape Breton County be amalgamated. On August 1, 1995 all seven municipal units in the county were dissolved and replaced by a single tier municipality called the

(CBRM). The new regional municipality's boundary included all of Cape Breton County except for the Eskasoni and Membertou

. Cape Breton County continues to exist as a county in Nova Scotia, but all municipal government and service delivery is provided by either the Cape Breton Regional Municipality or the First Nations, with no additional county level government or administration or any lower-level town or city-level government or administration.

Communities

;Regional municipalities *

;Reserves *

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cape Breton County Former county municipalities in Nova Scotia 1765 establishments in Nova Scotia