Halifax is more vibrant than ever! There is always something exciting to do or see. Whether it is taking in a show, enjoying an outdoor festival, attending a community class, or simply hanging out and enjoying Halifax’s unique culture. It is the people that make Dartmouth, Halifax special. This is a place to work, live and call home.
 The Halifax Regional Municipality - & why we love living here.
Halifax is the capital of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The Regional Municipality had a 2006 census population of 372,679 while the metropolitan area had a 2010 estimated population of 403,188 and the urban area of Halifax had a population of 282,924. Halifax is the largest population centre in Atlantic Canada and largest in Canada east of Quebec City. There are over 200[9] official rural and urban communities within Halifax County that have maintained their original geographic names .
Halifax is a major economic centre in eastern Canada with a large concentration of government services and private sector companies. Major employers and economic generators include the Department of National Defence, various levels of government, and the Port of Halifax. agriculture, fishing, mining, forestry and natural gas extraction are major resource industries found in the rural areas of HRM as well as many universities & colleges, private schools, tourism & IT & technology industries.
The area comprising present day Halifax County was settled for thousands of years by the Mi'kmaq. Those who settled on Halifax Harbour called it Jipugtug (anglicised as "Chebucto"), meaning Great Harbour. The first permanent European settlement in the area was the establishment of the Town of Halifax, named after the British Earl of Halifax, in 1749 when the colonial capital was transferred from Annapolis Royal; other towns and villages were established throughout adjacent areas of what would become Halifax County in the decades that followed. The British founding of Halifax initiated Father Le Loutre's War and the capital region was raided during the war 13 times by the Acadians and Mi'kmaq.
In 1996 the provincial government amalgamated all municipal governments within Halifax County to create HRM, a regional municipality comprising approximately 200 individual communities or placenames for civic addressing grouped into eighteen planning areas for zoning purposes.
The Halifax Regional Municipality occupies an area of 5,577 square kilometres (2,353 sq mi), approximately 10% of Nova Scotia.
The municipality is centred on the urban core and surrounded by areas of decreasing density the farther the community is from the core.
Unlike most municipalities with a sizable census metropolitan area, Halifax Regional Municipality's suburbs have been completely incorporated into the entire municipality (often by referendum. For example, the community of Spryfield, in the Mainland South area, voted to amalgamate with Halifax in 1968), with the urban area including the urban core, suburban communities and a rural commuter shed that encompasses almost half the municipality's landmass.
The urban area of HRM (2006 pop: 282,924) is located in the western end of the municipality, fronting on Halifax Harbour. The dense urban core is centred on the Halifax Peninsula and the area of Dartmouth inside of the Circumferential Highway. The suburban area stretches beyond Mainland Halifax to the west, Cole Harbour to the east, and Bedford, Lower Sackville and Windsor Junction areas to the north.
This urban area constitutes the most populous urban area on Canada's Atlantic coast, and the second largest coastal population centre in the country, after Vancouver, British Columbia. HRM currently accounts for 40% of Nova Scotia's population, and 15% of that of Atlantic Canada.
Whether you choose to live on the Halifax Penninsula, Dartmouth, Clayton Park, Bedford or beyond, you will be very happy that moved to this terrrific area. For more information on each of the areas comprising the Halifax Regional Municipality, please visit the links to your right.
NOTE: Please keep in mind that we are continuously updating our webpage & more links will be added over the next months. Thanks for your understanding as we grow our webpage.
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