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Map of New Brunswick

New Brunswick is a first-level division of Canada. Its largest mapped city is Moncton, with about 90,635 people in the metropolitan area. The interactive map below is centred on New Brunswick, and the tables list its 5 mapped cities along with the lakes, ports nearest to them.

Cities Mapped
5
Largest City
Moncton
90,635
Country
Canada
North America

Interactive Map of New Brunswick

6.4

About New Brunswick

New Brunswick is a province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the northwest, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, Nova Scotia to the east, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to the southwest. It is part of Eastern Canada and is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. The province is about 83% forested and its northern half is occupied by the Appalachians. The province's climate is continental with snowy winters and temperate summers. The province has a surface area of 72,908 square kilometres (28,150 sq mi) and 775,610 inhabitants (2021 census).

Approximately half of the population lives in urban areas, predominantly in Moncton, Saint John, and Fredericton. In 1969, New Brunswick passed the Official Languages Act which began recognizing French as an official language, along with English. New Brunswickers have the right to receive provincial government services in the official language of their choice. About two thirds of the population are English speaking and one third is French speaking. New Brunswick is home to most of the cultural region of Acadia and most Acadians. New Brunswick's variety of French is called Acadian French. There are seven regional accents.

The territory of New Brunswick overlaps the homelands of three First Nations: the Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), and Passamaquoddy. The eastern coast is part of Mi'kma'ki, while Wolastoqiyik and Passamaquoddy territories cover the west. In 1604, Acadia, the first New France colony, was founded with the creation of Port-Royal in southwest Nova Scotia. For a century and half afterwards, Acadia changed hands multiple times due to numerous conflicts between France and the United Kingdom. From 1755 to 1764, the British deported Acadians en masse, an event known as the Great Upheaval. This, along with the Treaty of Paris, solidified Acadia as British property.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia: New Brunswick (CC BY-SA 4.0).

New Brunswick, Canada
Image via Wikimedia Commons.

New Brunswick in Depth

History

Paleo-Indians are believed to have been the first humans on the land of New Brunswick, settling there roughly 10,000 years ago. Because their descendants did not leave a written record, there is a lack of knowledge of the history of the area before the arrival of European explorers. New Brunswick's land base has historically formed integral parts of the homelands of three First Nations: the Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik, and Passamaquoddy of Wabanakia. Much of the eastern coast falls within the Mi'kmaw district of Siknikt (Signigtewa'gi) in their country of Mi'kma'ki; the western half of the province is covered by the Wolastoqiyik homeland: Wolastokuk, named for the Wolastoq or Saint John River; and Peskotomuhkatik, the Passamaquoddy country, surrounds the bay named for the nation.

Geography

Roughly square, New Brunswick is bordered on the north by Quebec, on the east by the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on the south by the Bay of Fundy, and on the west by the US state of Maine. The southeast corner of the province is connected to Nova Scotia at the isthmus of Chignecto.

Glaciation has left much of New Brunswick's uplands with only shallow, acidic soils which have discouraged settlement but which are home to enormous forests.

New Brunswick's climate is more severe than that of the other Maritime provinces, which are lower and have more shoreline along the moderating sea. New Brunswick has a humid continental climate, with slightly milder winters on the Gulf of St. Lawrence coastline. Elevated parts of the far north of the province have a subarctic climate.

Economy

As of October 2017, seasonally adjusted employment is 73,400 for the goods-producing sector and 280,900 for the services-producing sector. Those in the goods-producing industries are mostly employed in manufacturing or construction, while those in services work in social assistance, trades, and health care. A large portion of the economy is controlled by the Irving Group of Companies, which consists of the holdings of the family of K. C. Irving. The companies have significant holdings in agriculture, forestry, food processing, freight transport (including railways and trucking), media, oil, and shipbuilding.

The influence of the Irving family on New Brunswick is such that the province is sometimes described as being subject to a form of economic feudalism.

Demographics

At the 2021 Canadian census, New Brunswick had a population of 775,610, a 3.8% increase since the 2016 Canadian census. As one of the four Atlantic Provinces which are Canada's least populated provinces, New Brunswick is the third-least populous province. The census also recorded New Brunswick as being the fourth-most densely populated Canadian province, with 10.9 people per square kilometre, behind Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia: New Brunswick (CC BY-SA 4.0).

New Brunswick: Key Facts

Key facts about New Brunswick
Population775,610 (2021)
Area72,908 km²
Head of governmentSusan Holt
Highest pointMount Carleton
Established1 July 1867

Facts from Wikidata Q1965 (CC0).

History of New Brunswick: Empires and States

The atlas records 5 polities whose mapped territory included part of New Brunswick, from Kingdom of France in 1752 CE to 2024 CE. They are listed in the order they first appear.

Polities that held New Brunswick, in chronological order
PolityPeriod here
Kingdom of France1752–1761 CE
New France1752–1761 CE
British Colonial Empire1762–1931 CE
The British Empire1762–1931 CE
Canada1932–2024 CE

Historical Maps of New Brunswick

New Brunswick on the world map in each year one of these states held it:

Derived by testing mapped cities against dated territorial polygons. Dates are when the polygons cover this place, not the polity's whole lifespan, and polities absent from the source dataset are not listed.

Visiting New Brunswick

For the article on the city in New Jersey, see New Brunswick (New Jersey).

New Brunswick (French: Nouveau-Brunswick; NB) is one of the Atlantic Provinces of Canada, and the country's only bilingual province with both English and French as official languages. While the province covers a land area the size of Ireland, there are only 780,000 inhabitants (2020), most of them along the coasts and in the Saint John River Valley. The inland consists of sparsely populated forest.

The Mi'kmaq is the dominant First Nation (Indigenous people) in New Brunswick.

Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: New Brunswick (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Largest Cities in New Brunswick

5 cities mapped. Ranked by metropolitan population. A port city's harbour is written up on the page of its sea.

Largest Cities in New Brunswick
#NamePopulation
1Moncton90,635
2Saint John87,857
3Fredericton52,337
4Edmundston17,894
5Bathurst6,111

Largest Lakes in New Brunswick

1 lake mapped. Ranked by mapped surface area. A lake on a border is listed under each country it lies in, with the area of the whole lake. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.

Largest Lakes in New Brunswick
#NameSurface Area
1Grand Lake176 km²

Ports in New Brunswick

6 ports mapped. Ranked by approach channel depth, the figure that limits which ships can call. Harbours link to their write-up on the page of the sea or coast they lie on. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.

Ports in New Brunswick
#NameChannel Depth
1Caraquet49.4 m
2Shippegan49.4 m
3St John42.1 m
4Dalhousie38.4 m
5Canaport (St. John)5.5 m
6Port Bayside Nb—

New Brunswick: Quick Answers

Where is New Brunswick?
New Brunswick is a first-level division of Canada, in North America. Its mapped cities centre on 46.4560° N, 66.2919° W.
What is the largest city in New Brunswick?
Moncton is the largest city mapped in New Brunswick, with a metropolitan population of about 90,635.
How many cities are in New Brunswick?
YearMaps maps 5 cities and towns in New Brunswick, with a combined metropolitan population of about 254,834. This counts mapped settlements, not every municipality.
What is the largest lake in New Brunswick?
The largest lake mapped in or beside New Brunswick is Grand Lake, at about 176 km².

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