Map of Nova Scotia, Canada

Nova Scotia (Latin for New Scotland) is a Canadian province situated on the Atlantic coast of North America, one of the four original provinces (along with New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec) that constituted the Dominion of Canada in 1867. Roughly 580 km long and no more than about 130 km wide, the province comprises the peninsula of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island (separated from the mainland to the southwest by the narrow Strait of Canso), and a number of small islands. Nova Scotia is home to over 13,300 km of coastline. Nova Scotia's capital and largest city is Halifax, the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada.

Nova Scotia is Canada's second-smallest province in area, after Prince Edward Island. It is surrounded by four major bodies of water: the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (north), the Bay of Fundy (west), the Gulf of Maine (southwest), and the Atlantic Ocean (east). The province's mainland is the Nova Scotia peninsula and includes numerous bays and estuaries. Cape Breton Island, a large island to the northeast of the Nova Scotia and Sable Island, a small remote island, approximately 175 km from the province's southern coast are also part of the province.

The land that makes up what is now Nova Scotia was inhabited by the Mi'kmaq people at the time of European colonization. In 1605, Acadia, the France's first New France colony and a historical and cultural region in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, was founded with the creation of Acadia's capital, Port Royal. The Scots, British, fought France for the territory on numerous occasions for over a century afterwards, having gained it from them in the 1713 Peace of Utrecht. In 1848, Nova Scotia became the first British colony to achieve autonomous government. In July 1867, Nova Scotia joined in Confederation with New Brunswick and the Province of Canada (now Ontario and Quebec), forming the Dominion of Canada.