Nova Scotia 

(/ˌnoʊvə ˈskoʊʃə/ NOH-və  SKOH-shə; French: Nouvelle-Écosse; Scottish Gaelic: Alba

Nuadh; Miꞌkmaq: Nopa Skoꞌsia) 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 English-speakers and the province's population is 969,383
according to the 2021 Census. It is the most populous of Canada's Atlantic provinces. It is the
country's second-most densely populated province and second-smallest province by area, both
after Prince Edward Island.[6] Its area of 55,284 square kilometres (21,345 sq mi) includes Cape
Breton Island and 3,800 other coastal islands. The peninsula that makes up Nova
Scotia's mainland is connected to the rest of North America by the Isthmus of Chignecto, on which
the province's land border with New Brunswick is located. The province borders the Bay of
Fundy and Gulf of Maine to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, and is separated
from Prince Edward Island and the island of Newfoundland by
the Northumberland and Cabot straits, respectively.
The land that comprises what is now Nova Scotia was inhabited by the Miꞌkmaq people at the time of
European exploration. In 1605, Acadia, France's first New France colony, was founded with the
creation of Acadia's capital, Port-Royal. Britain fought France for the territory on numerous
occasions for over a century afterwards. The Fortress of Louisbourg was a key focus point in the
battle for control. Following the Great Upheaval (1755–1763) where the British deported
the Acadians en masse, the Conquest of New France (1758–1760) by the British, and the Treaty of
Paris (1763), France had to surrender Acadia to the British Empire. During the American
Revolutionary War (1775–1783), thousands of Loyalists settled in Nova Scotia. In 1848, Nova Scotia
became the first British colony to achieve responsible government, and it federated in July 1867 with
New Brunswick and the Province of Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) to form what is now the
country of Canada.
Nova Scotia's capital and largest city is Halifax, which today is home to about 45 percent of the
province's population. Halifax is the thirteenth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada,[7] the
largest city in Atlantic Canada, and Canada's second-largest coastal city after Vancouver.