Lunenburg County is a historical county and census division on the South Shore of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Major settlements include Bridgewater, Lunenburg, and Mahone Bay.

Named in honour of the British king who was also the duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, it was established in 1759, when the Nova Scotia peninsula was divided into five counties. The county became smaller when new counties were created from its boundaries: Queens (1762), Hants (1781), Shelburne (1784), and Sydney (1784).

By Chapter 52 of the Statutes of 1863, Lunenburg County was divided into two districts for court sessional purposes – Chester and Lunenburg. That statute provided authority for the appointment of a Custos Rotulorum and for the establishment of a general sessions of the peace for the District of Chester, with the same powers as if it were a separate county. In 1879, the two districts were incorporated as district municipalities.

Today the county has no legal status, although its borders are coincident with the five municipalities contained within it:

• the municipality of the District of Chester
• the municipality of the District of Lunenburg
• the town of Bridgewater
• the town of Lunenburg
• the town of Mahone Bay

The above municipalities comprise the entire territory of the county.^[4]

There are three Sipekneꞌkatik First Nation reserves in the county:

• Gold River 21
• New Ross 20
• Pennal 19

As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Lunenburg County had a population of 48,599 living in 22,443 of its 27,092 total private dwellings, a change of 3.1% from its 2016 population of 47,126. With a land area of 2,906.47 km² (1,122.19 sq mi), it had a population density of 16.7/km² (43.3/sq mi) in 2021.^[5]

More information Census, Population ...

Population trend[6][7] Census Population Change (%) 1871 23,834 N/A 1881 28,583 19.93% 1891 31,075 8.72% 1901 32,389 4.23% 1911 33,260 2.69% 1921 33,742 1.45% 1931 31,674 6.13% 1941 32,942 1.45% 1981 45,746 N/A 1986 46,483 2.5% 1991 47,634 4.1% 1996 47,561 0.2% 2001 47,591 0.1% 2006 47,150 0.9% 2011 47,313 0.3% 2016 47,126 0.4% 2021 48,599 3.1%

Mother tongue language (2011)[8] Language Population Pct (%) English only 45,305 96.83% French only 525 1.12% Non-official languages 805 1.72% Multiple responses 150 0.32%

Ethnic Groups (2006)[9] Ethnic Origin Population Pct (%) Canadian 19,265 41.3% German 16,290 34.9% English 13,405 28.8% Scottish 8,655 18.6% French 6,360 13.6% Irish 6,155 13.2% Dutch (Netherlands) 3,105 6.7% North American Indian 1,930 4.1% Welsh 1,000 2.1%

Religious make-up (2001)[10] Religion Population Pct (%) Protestant 34,220 72.80% No religious affiliation 6,810 14.49% Catholic 5,230 11.13% Christian n.i.e. 535 1.14% Muslim 80 0.17% Jewish 70 0.15% Christian Orthodox 20 0.04% Hindu 20 0.04% Buddhist 15 0.03% Other religions 10 0.02%

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Highways and numbered routes that run through the county, including external routes that start or finish at the county boundary:^[11]

• List of communities in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia
• List of communities in Nova Scotia
• Lunenburg English, the distinctive dialect of the area