Maple syrup in Nova Scotia, county by county
- Maple farms, 2021
- 120
- −36% since 2016
- Taps, 2021
- 420,383
- −6% since 2016
- Sap usually starts
- Mar 15
- to Apr 17 · weather estimate
- Divisions with a page
- 7
- of 15 with maple farms
Reading the map
Where Nova Scotia's sugaring happens
Cumberland alone holds 257,477 taps (61% of the province). Divisions shaded lightest have the fewest taps; cream divisions have their tap count withheld by Statistics Canada; grey divisions reported fewer than five farms with taps and have no atlas page. Click any division for its season calendar.
No official season record exists for Nova Scotia, so the division dates below are a weather estimate: the median of each division's own weather signals over 35 seasons. Weighted by farms, the province's signal runs from about Mar 15 to Apr 17.
Every census division
Nova Scotia maple production and season dates by division
| Division | Farms | Taps | Taps vs 2016 | Sap usually runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cumberland | 31 | 257,477 | −16% | Mar 19 – Apr 20 |
| Kings | 18 | 61,068E | Mar 13 – Apr 16 | |
| Richmond | 0 | 0 | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Shelburne | 0 | 0 | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Yarmouth | 0 | 0 | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Colchester | 16 | withheld by Statistics Canada | Mar 17 – Apr 19 | |
| Pictou | 11 | withheld by Statistics Canada | Mar 18 – Apr 19 | |
| Annapolis | 10 | withheld by Statistics Canada | Mar 11 – Apr 12 | |
| Lunenburg | 9 | withheld by Statistics Canada | Mar 9 – Apr 10 | |
| Hants | 8 | withheld by Statistics Canada | Mar 14 – Apr 16 | |
| Inverness | 4 | withheld by Statistics Canada | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Antigonish | 3 | withheld by Statistics Canada | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Halifax | 3 | withheld by Statistics Canada | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Cape Breton | 2 | withheld by Statistics Canada | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Victoria | 2 | withheld by Statistics Canada | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Digby | 1 | withheld by Statistics Canada | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Guysborough | 1 | withheld by Statistics Canada | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Queens | 1 | withheld by Statistics Canada | fewer than 5 farms · no page | |
| Nova Scotia total | 120 | 420,383 | −6% | Weather estimate Mar 15 – Apr 17 |
- E Statistics Canada quality grade: use with caution.
- "Withheld by Statistics Canada": Statistics Canada suppressed the value as too unreliable to publish (F). The farm count is still published.
- Division figures need not sum to the province total because of the withheld values. Statistics Canada cautions that 2021 and 2016 are not strictly comparable: the census-farm definition changed in 2021, and farms were assigned to their main location more strictly.
- Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division, so this table has no gallons or litres.
About this page
Production figures are copied, unchanged, from Statistics Canada Tables 32-10-0362-01 (2021) and 32-10-0423-01 (2016). Season dates come from the atlas: 35 seasons of daily Daymet temperatures at each division's reference town, scored with the freeze-thaw rule behind our live forecast. How the atlas is built →
Sources · 5
- 1.Maple taps, Census of Agriculture, 2021 (Table 32-10-0362-01) · Statistics Canada
- 2.Maple taps, Census of Agriculture, 2011 and 2016 (Table 32-10-0423-01) · Statistics Canada
- 3.Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1 · ORNL DAAC
- 4.2021 Census cartographic boundary files (census divisions, population centres) · Statistics Canada
- 5.GeoNames geographical database (CA) · GeoNames
Licences and attribution
- Adapted from Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture 2021 and 2016 (Tables 32-10-0362-01 and 32-10-0423-01), 2021 Census population and dwelling counts (Tables 98-10-0002-01 and 98-10-0011-01) and 2021 Census cartographic boundary files. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
- Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
- Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, S-C. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2022. Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2129
- Place coordinates: GeoNames (geonames.org), CC BY 4.0.
FAQ
Nova Scotia maple questions
- Which census division in Nova Scotia makes the most maple syrup?
- Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division, so the best measure is taps. Cumberland had the most in the 2021 Census of Agriculture: 257,477 taps on 31 farms, about 61% of the province's taps. Statistics Canada withheld the tap count for 13 divisions, so the ranking covers divisions with a published count.
- How many maple producers are there in Nova Scotia?
- The 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 120 farms reporting maple taps in Nova Scotia (187 in 2016), with 420,383 taps. Statistics Canada cautions that 2021 and 2016 are not strictly comparable because the census-farm definition changed.
- Where does the sap run first in Nova Scotia?
- By our weather record, Lunenburg (Bridgewater) typically starts around March 9, while Cumberland (Amherst) starts around March 19, a spread of about 10 days across the province.
Nova Scotia
More for Nova Scotia sugarmakers
Other provinces
The maple atlas elsewhere
LuckySap · free on iPhone & Android
Know when Nova Scotia's sap will run
LuckySap turns the forecast for your trees into a day-by-day sap-flow outlook, can ping you the evening before a strong sap day, and keeps every collection and boil in one season log. Free on iPhone and Android.
