New Brunswick (French: Nouveau-Brunswick) is one of the ten provinces of Canada, the largest and Eastern-most of the Canadian Maritimes (which include Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island).

With its many swift-flowing streams and rounded, forested hills, New Brunswick has the rough charm of the uplands of New England.

Timber cut from dense forests is transported to mills that make pulp and paper, a leading manufacturing activity. Fishing and agriculture are also important, and the province’s rich mineral deposits support a vigorous mining industry.

New Brunswick’s rugged wilderness and coastal scenery draw many tourists, and the largely unoccupied northern interior is famous for its excellent hunting and fishing.

The original inhabitants of the area that is now New Brunswick were Algonquian-speaking peoples of the Northeast culture area.

During and after the American Revolution (1775-1783), many United Empire Loyalists — American colonists who remained loyal to Britain during the war — fled to New Brunswick. They settled there in such great numbers that the province was nicknamed the Loyalist Province.

The Loyalists lived among French farmers and fishers, who had settled in the Maritimes in the early 17th century and called the region Acadia.

New Brunswick became a part of the British province of Nova Scotia in 1763 at the conclusion of the French and Indian War. Many French Acadians expelled by the British during the war were allowed to return, and the French population and culture remained an important force in the region.

In 1784, New Brunswick became a separate British province. Nearly a century later, in 1867, New Brunswick was one of the four original provinces — along with Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Québec — that joined to form the Dominion of Canada.

Today, New Brunswick has the highest percentage of Francophones in Canada outside of Québec, and is Canada’s only constitutionally bilingual province (French and English). The province’s majority is English-speaking, but a large minority, chiefly of Acadian origin, speak French.

The province’s name comes from the archaic English name of Braunschweig, a city in Northern Germany.

New Brunswick does not have a single dominant urban center but features instead several major cities, each with its own distinct history and character.

• Saint John, the seat of Saint John County at the mouth of the province’s largest river in southern New Brunswick, is an important shipping and commercial center and the province’s largest city.
• Moncton, a major railway center in Westmorland County in southeastern New Brunswick, developed as a key distribution point for the Maritimes.
• Fredericton is the seat of York County and the provincial capital. Since the end of World War II, Fredericton has benefited from the expansion of government services and higher education, which are important sources of local employment.
• Dieppe, in Westmorland County on the Petitcodiac River in southeastern New Brunswick.
• Edmundston, in Madawaska County in northwestern New Brunswick, at the confluence of the St. John and Madawaska rivers.

Other large cities are

• Oromocto, southeast of Fredericton, home to Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, one of the largest military training bases in the Commonwealth.
• Campbellton, in Restigouche County on the Restigouche River in north central New Brunswick.
• Woodstock, the seat of Carleton County in western New Brunswick.
• Bathurst, the seat of Gloucester County, a seaport and industrial center at the mouth of the Nepisiguit River, along Chaleur Bay (Baie des Chaleurs) in northeastern New Brunswick.