It comprises Manitoulin Island primarily, as well as a number of smaller islands surrounding it, such as Barrie, Cockburn, and Great La Cloche islands. Previously it included the municipality of Killarney on the mainland, until this was transferred to Sudbury District in the late 1990s. Subsequently, more mainland portions were added to Killarney and these, together with Unorganized Mainland Manitoulin District, were also transferred to Sudbury District in 2006, about 1,600 square kilometres (600 sq mi) in all.[2]
Geography
The district has an area of 3,073.54 square kilometres (1,186.70 sq mi),[1] making it the smallest district in Ontario. It is in the northern part of Lake Huron, separated from the mainland by the North Channel to the north and by the Georgian Bay to the east.
As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Manitoulin District had a population of 13,935 living in 6,144 of its 9,302 total private dwellings, a change of 5.1% from its 2016 population of 13,255. With a land area of 3,073.54 km2 (1,186.70 sq mi), it had a population density of 4.5/km2 (11.7/sq mi) in 2021.[1]
Canada census – Manitoulin District community profile
Notes: 2006 population adjusted for 2011 boundaries is 12,632. References: 2021[4] 2016[5] 2011[6] earlier[7][8]
Historical census populations – Manitoulin District
Year
Pop.
±%
1921
10,468
—
1931
10,734
+2.5%
1941
10,841
+1.0%
1951
11,214
+3.4%
1956
11,060
−1.4%
1961
11,176
+1.0%
Year
Pop.
±%
1966
10,544
−5.7%
1971
10,931
+3.7%
1976
10,893
−0.3%
1981
11,001
+1.0%
1986
9,823
−10.7%
1991
11,192
+13.9%
Year
Pop.
±%
1996
11,413
+2.0%
2001
12,679
+11.1%
2006
13,090
+3.2%
2011
13,048
−0.3%
2016
13,255
+1.6%
2021
13,935
+5.1%
Population counts are not adjusted for boundary changes. Source: Statistics Canada[1][9]
Services
Like the other districts of Northern Ontario, the Manitoulin District does not have a county or regional municipality tier of government. All services in the district are provided either by the individual municipalities or directly by the provincial government. Services are provided jointly with the Sudbury District from its district seat in Espanola.
The district is served by two weekly community newspapers, the Manitoulin Expositor in Little Current and the Manitoulin West Recorder in Gore Bay; the papers are sister publications both owned and operated by the McCutcheon family.
^"1971 Census of Canada - Population Census Subdivisions (Historical)". Catalogue 92-702 Vol I, part 1 (Bulletin 1.1-2). Statistics Canada: 76, 139. July 1973.
