Elgin County ( EL-ghin) is a county composed of seven municipalities in Ontario, Canada with a 2021 population of 51,912. Its population centres are Aylmer, Port Stanley, Belmont, Dutton and West Lorne. The county seat is St. Thomas, which is separated from the county but within its geographic boundary.
Contents
Subdivisions
Elgin County is composed of seven incorporated municipalities (in order of population):
Municipality of Central Elgin
Township of Malahide
Town of Aylmer
Municipality of Bayham
Municipality of West Elgin
Township of Southwold
Municipality of Dutton/Dunwich
The City of St. Thomas is geographically within the boundaries of Elgin County and part of the Elgin census division, but is separated from county administration.
Historical townships
Originally Elgin County was once part of Middlesex County, which was reorganized as the United Counties of Middlesex and Elgin in 1851. Elgin was named after Lord Elgin, who was Governor General of Canada at the time.
The County was separated from Middlesex in September 1853.
Demographics
As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Elgin County had a population of 94,752 living in 37,278 of its 38,889 total private dwellings, a change of 6.5% from its 2016 population of 88,978. With a land area of 1,878.57 km2 (725.32 sq mi), it had a population density of 50.4/km2 (130.6/sq mi) in 2021.
Notable persons from Elgin County
Horace Harvey - Chief Justice of Alberta
John Kenneth Galbraith - Canadian/American economist
Mitchell Hepburn - Premier of Ontario
Rachel McAdams - Actress
Joe Thornton - NHL - Professional Hockey Player
Bo Horvat - NHL - Professional Hockey Player