The Strathcona Regional District is a regional district in British Columbia, Canada. It was created on February 15, 2008, encompassing the northern and western portions of the former Regional District of Comox-Strathcona. The partition left the new Strathcona Regional District with 91.6 percent of the former Comox-Strathcona's land area, but only 42.1 percent of its population. Its current territory has a land area of 18,329.948 km2 (7,077.232 sq mi) and a 2016 census population of 44,671 inhabitants. There are 21 named Indian reserves within its territory, with a combined 2016 census population of 1,579 and combined land area of 16.444 km2 (6.345 sq mi).
The District's head offices are in Campbell River, British Columbia. During a transitional period, much of its administration was carried out by the Comox Valley Regional District, based in Courtenay, British Columbia but it is now self-administered. It is governed by a board of directors comprising representatives from each of the 5 municipalities and 4 electoral areas within its boundaries. It is anticipated that the board will expand to include representatives from some of the First Nations governments within its boundaries following treaty settlements.
As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Strathcona Regional District had a population of 48,150 living in 21,227 of its 23,017 total private dwellings, a change of 7.8% from its 2016 population of 44,671. With a land area of 18,243.66 km2 (7,043.92 sq mi), it had a population density of 2.6/km2 (6.8/sq mi) in 2021.[2]
Panethnic groups in the Strathcona Regional District (2001−2021)