page_title: Charlottetown
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Charlottetown / Geography
caption_attribution_description: As we flew over headed for the airport, downtown Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, and the waterfront.
context_page_description: Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom, Charlottetown was originally an unincorporated town that incorporated as a city in 1855.
  It was famously the site of the Charlottetown Conference in 1864, the first gathering of Canadian and Maritime statesmen to debate the proposed Maritime Union and the more persuasive British North American Union, now known as Canadian Confederation, although PEI itself would not join Confederation until 1873, six years after it was formed in 1867. From this, the city adopted as its motto Cunabula Foederis—"Birthplace of Confederation".
  The population of Charlottetown in the 2016 census was 36,094; this forms the centre of a census agglomeration of 76,728, which is slightly less than half of the province's population.
context_section_description: Charlottetown is situated on its namesake harbour, which is formed by the confluence of three rivers in the central part of the island's south shore.  The harbour opens onto the Northumberland Strait.  The city is roughly V-shaped (pointed to the south) and constrained by the North (Yorke) and the Hillsborough (East) Rivers to the west and east.
caption: Charlottetown is situated on its namesake harbour. The harbour leads into the Northumberland Strait.
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