# Papineau Regional County Municipality

Papineau (French pronunciation:) is a regional county municipality in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. The seat is Papineauville.

## Subdivisions

There are 25 subdivisions within the RCM:
| Name | Type | Population (2016) | Area (km$^2$) | Density (inhab./km$^2$) |
| Boileau | Municipality | 335 | 136.33 | 2.5 |
| Bowman | Municipality | 658 | 129.30 | 5.1 |
| Chénéville | Municipality | 764 | 66.76 | 11.4 |
| Duhamel | Municipality | 430 | 434.57 | 1.0 |
| Fassett | Municipality | 431 | 12.49 | 34.5 |
| Lac-des-Plages | Municipality | 431 | 152.94 | 2.8 |
| Lac-Simon | Municipality | 944 | 97.48 | 9.7 |
| Lochaber | Township | 415 | 60.70 | 6.8 |
| Lochaber-Partie-Ouest | Township | 856 | 57.45 | 14.9 |
| Mayo | Municipality | 601 | 73.25 | 8.2 |
| Montebello | Municipality | 983 | 8.62 | 114.0 |
| Montpellier | Municipality | 985 | 249.14 | 4.0 |
| Mulgrave-et-Derry | Municipality | 369 | 293.75 | 1.3 |
| Namur | Municipality | 572 | 56.76 | 10.1 |
| Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours | Municipality | 301 | 264.97 | 1.1 |
| Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix | Municipality | 648 | 106.62 | 6.1 |
| Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette | Municipality | 727 | 117.10 | 6.3 |
| Papineauville | Municipality | 2,101 | 61.33 | 34.3 |
| Plaisance | Municipality | 1,088 | 36.15 | 30.1 |
| Ripon | Municipality | 1,542 | 131.47 | 11.7 |
| Saint-André-Avellin | Municipality | 3,749 | 137.99 | 27.2 |
| Saint-Émile-de-Suffolk | Municipality | 477 | 56.68 | 8.4 |
| Saint-Sixte | Municipality | 469 | 85.33 | 5.5 |
| Thurso | City | 2,818 | 6.28 | 449.0 |
| Val-des-Bois | Municipality | 865 | 225.42 | 3.8 |
| Total | Total | 22,832 | 2,941.79 | 7.8 |

## Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the RCM of Papineau had a population of 24,308 living in 11,504 of its 16,059 total private dwellings, a change of 6.5% from its 2016 population of 22,832. With a land area of 2,903.45 km$^2$ (1,121.03 sq mi), it had a population density of 8.4/km$^2$ (21.7/sq mi) in 2021.
In 2021, the median age was 54.0, as opposed to 41.6 for all of Canada. French was the mother tongue of 91.2% of residents in 2021. The next most common mother tongues are English at 5.5% total, followed by Spanish and German at 0.2% each and by Portuguese at 0.1%. 1.9% reported both English and French as their first language. Additionally there were 0.1% who reported both French and a non-official language as their mother tongue and another 0.1% who reported both French, English and a non-official language as their mother tongue.
As of 2021, Indigenous peoples comprised 4.4% of the population, and visible minorities contributed 1.1%. The largest visible minority groups in the RCM of Papineau are Black (0.4%), Chinese (0.1%), and Arab (0.1%).
In 2021, 65.2% of the population identified as Catholic, while 26.1% said they had no religious affiliation. Baptists were the largest religious minority, making up 0.6% of the population. Buddhists were the largest non-Christian religious minority, making up just over 0.1% of the population.
Mother tongue from Canada 2016 Census
| Language | Population | Pct (%) |
| French only | 21,015 | 92.6% |
| English only | 1,150 | 5.1% |
| Both English and French | 250 | 1.1% |
| Other languages | 270 | 1.19% |

## Transportation
### Access Routes

Highways and numbered routes that run through the municipality, including external routes that start or finish at the county border: