List of municipalities in New Brunswick
In 1785, Saint John became the first community in what would eventually become Canada to incorporate as a city. Moncton is New Brunswick's largest municipality by population with 71,889 residents and Saint John is the largest urban municipality by land area at . Approximately one-third of the residents of New Brunswick do not live in municipalities but reside in local service districts, which are unincorporated communities administered by the Minister of Environment and Local Government and have no local government of their own.
The Maritimes
This has been particularly problematic with the growth of the welfare state in Canada since the 1950s, resulting in the need to draw upon equalization payments to provide nationally mandated social services. Since the 1990s the region has experienced an exceptionally tumultuous period in its regional economy with the collapse of large portions of the ground fishery throughout Atlantic Canada, the closing of coal mines and a steel mill on Cape Breton Island, and the closure of military bases in all three provinces. That being said, New Brunswick has one of the largest military bases in the British Commonwealth (CFB Gagetown), which plays a significant role in the cultural and economic spheres of Fredericton, the province's capital city.