New Brunswick is one of the four original Canadian provinces. It is located in eastern Canada. The 
beautiful coastline of New Brunswick gave the province its nickname, the Picture Province. New Brunswick’s official name came from the British royal family of Brunswick. Its capital is Fredericton.
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island are known as the Maritime Provinces. New Brunswick is the largest of the three. Inlets of the Atlantic Ocean surround New Brunswick on three sides. A narrow isthmus, or strip of land, connects the province with Nova Scotia. A bridge links New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. Quebec lies to the west.
Many of New Brunswick’s people have English, Irish, Scottish, or French ancestors. Later immigrants came from other parts of Europe and Asia. Small numbers of First Nations peoples and Blacks also live in the province.
English and French are both official languages of the province. Most of the people speak English. About one-third speak mainly French. The University of New Brunswick is Canada’s oldest English-language university.
About half the people in New Brunswick live in cities. Saint John is the province’s largest and oldest city. Farther north along the Saint John River sits New Brunswick’s capital city, Fredericton. Moncton, the second largest city, is a port in the southeast.
Factories in New Brunswick produce a variety of goods, including food, paper, wood and metal products, and machinery. Forests, which cover much of the province, provide wood and pulp for paper. Tourism is an important service industry. The province’s waters offer many types of fish, lobsters, and crabs. Mines provide such metals as antimony, bismuth, lead, silver, and zinc. The land is also a source of peat and coal, both of which are used for fuel.
Only a small part of New Brunswick’s land is used for agriculture, but farming is still important to the economy. The province is known for its potatoes. Eggs, poultry, berries, apples, and dairy products also come from the province.
New Brunswick’s first peoples were Algonquian-speaking First Nations, including the Micmac and the Malecite. In 1534 the French explorer Jacques Cartier landed on the east coast of what is now New Brunswick. In 1604 the French explorer Samuel de Champlain helped to establish the first French settlement in the region. French settlers gave the name Acadia to what are now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
In 1755 the British drove most of the French out of Acadia. During the American Revolution thousands of people from the American colonies who wanted to remain loyal to the British moved to New Brunswick, which became a separate province in 1784. The province became known for shipbuilding.
Along with Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec, New Brunswick became a province of the new country of Canada in 1867. Railroads built during the late 1800s helped the economy to grow. New industries, including oil refining and power plants, developed in the 1900s. However, many people left New Brunswick for larger cities in Quebec and Ontario. Population (2023 est.) 842,725.
