Newfoundland (island)

Newfoundland is a large island that forms part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It lies off the eastern coast of mainland North America, south of Labrador. Though it makes up only 29% of the province’s land area, the island is home to more than 90% of the province’s population. Roughly 60% of those people live on the Avalon Peninsula, a relatively small region in the southeast. The provincial capital, St. John’s, sits on that same southeastern coast. Just south of the capital, Cape Spear marks the easternmost point of North America, not counting Greenland.

The island is separated from the Labrador Peninsula by the Strait of Belle Isle and from Cape Breton Island by the Cabot Strait. By blocking the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, Newfoundland helps create the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the largest estuary in the world. Its closest neighbour is the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, only 19 km (12 mi) away. Newfoundland covers 108,878.06 km² (42,038.05 sq mi), making it the fifteenth-largest island in the world, the fourth-largest in Canada, and the largest Canadian island outside the northern regions. When nearby islands such as New World, Twillingate, Fogo, and Bell Island are included, the total area reaches 111,390 km² (43,010 sq mi).

According to the 2006 census, 57% of responding Newfoundland and Labradorians reported British or Irish ancestry: 43.2% had at least one English parent, 21.5% at least one Irish parent, 7% at least one Scottish parent, and 6.1% at least one French parent. The island’s population was 479,105 in 2006, rising to 510,550 by the 2021 census.

The island was long inhabited by Indigenous peoples, including the Dorset culture and the Beothuk, who spoke the now-extinct Beothuk language. It may have been visited by the Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson in the 11th century as a rest stop on his way south to a land called Vinland, believed to be near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. The first confirmed European visit was by the Norse, who built a temporary base at L’Anse aux Meadows near the northern tip of Newfoundland (Cape Norman). This site, about a thousand years old, is the only undisputed evidence of Pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New Worlds, if Norse–Inuit contact on Greenland is excluded.

Later European visitors included Portuguese, Dutch, and French fishermen. The island may have been visited by John Cabot, sailing for England’s Henry VII from Bristol in 1497. In 1501, Portuguese brothers Gaspar Corte-Real and Miguel Corte-Real charted part of the coast while searching for the Northwest Passage. On 5 August 1583, Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland as England’s first overseas colony under a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I, making it the oldest British colony.

Over time, settlers developed local dialects of English and French. In the 19th century, a dialect of Irish known as Newfoundland Irish was spoken, and Scottish Gaelic was also used, especially in the Codroy Valley area by settlers from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The Scottish Gaelic name for the island was *Eilean a’ Trosg*, meaning “Island of the Cod,” while the Irish name *Talamh an Éisc* means “Land of the Fish.”

The first inhabitants were the Paleo-Eskimo, who have no known link to later groups. Little is known about them beyond archaeological evidence. Later, the Late Paleo-Eskimo, or Dorset culture, settled there about 4,000 years ago. They were descendants of ancient peoples who crossed from Siberia via the Bering land bridge. The Dorset died out or abandoned the island before the Norse arrived. After them, the Beothuk migrated from Labrador. There is no evidence they were on the island before the Norse. Scholars believe the Beothuk are closely related to the Innu of Labrador. The tribe is now considered extinct, though people of partial Beothuk descent have been documented. The name Beothuk means “people” in their language, which is often thought to be Algonquian, but a lack of records makes this uncertain. Shanawdithit, often regarded as the last full-blood Beothuk, died of tuberculosis in St. John’s in 1829. However, Santu Toney, born around 1835 and died in 1910, was a woman of mixed Mi’kmaq and Beothuk descent, indicating some Beothuk lived on after 1829. She said her father was Beothuk and her mother Mi’kmaq, both from Newfoundland. The Beothuk may have intermingled with Innu in Labrador and Mi’kmaq in Newfoundland. European histories suggest hostility between the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq, but Indigenous oral history disputes this. The Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit all hunted in the area.