How many provinces have Atlantic coastlines?

Four Canadian provinces border the Atlantic Ocean: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. These four provinces are collectively called Atlantic Canada, with the three Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI) sometimes distinguished from the larger and more easterly Newfoundland and Labrador. Together the four Atlantic provinces have a population of about 2.5 million and cover about 540,000 square kilometres.

Nova Scotia is a peninsula and Cape Breton Island, joined to the mainland by the Chignecto Isthmus. The province has 7,400 kilometres of coastline, with Halifax (population about 480,000) as the largest city and the country's second-largest natural harbour. Nova Scotia joined Confederation on July 1, 1867. New Brunswick is bilingual under provincial law (the Official Languages of New Brunswick Act, 2002), with about a third of the population identifying as Acadian or French-speaking. The capital is Fredericton; the largest cities are Moncton and Saint John. New Brunswick joined Confederation on July 1, 1867.

Prince Edward Island is Canada's smallest province by both area (5,660 square kilometres) and population (about 174,000). The province is connected to New Brunswick by the 12.9-kilometre Confederation Bridge (opened May 31, 1997, the longest bridge over ice-covered water in the world). Charlottetown is both the provincial capital and the historic site of the Charlottetown Conference of September 1864, which began the negotiations that led to Canadian Confederation. PEI joined Confederation on July 1, 1873.

Newfoundland and Labrador is Canada's most easterly province, comprising the island of Newfoundland and the larger Labrador mainland. The capital is St. John's on the Avalon Peninsula. The province joined Confederation last, on March 31, 1949, after two referenda in 1948 (the second of which produced a narrow 52 to 48 per cent vote in favour of joining Canada). The province operates on Newfoundland Standard Time (UTC-3:30), the only North American jurisdiction with a 30-minute offset from neighbouring time zones. The Grand Banks fishery, offshore oil and gas (Hibernia, White Rose, Hebron), and the Churchill Falls hydroelectric station in Labrador anchor the provincial economy.