Unlike most municipalities with a sizeable metropolitan area, the Halifax Regional Municipality’s suburbs have been completely incorporated into the “central” municipality, often by referendum. For example, the community of Spryfield, in the Mainland South area, voted to amalgamate with Halifax in 1968. The most recent amalgamation, which brought the entirety of Halifax County into the Municipality, has created a situation where a large “rural commutershed” area encompasses almost half the municipality’s landmass.

Metropolitan Halifax is a term used to roughly describe the urban concentration surrounding Halifax Harbour, and includes the Halifax Peninsula, the core of Dartmouth, and the Bedford-Sackville areas. It is the Statistics Canada “population centre” of Halifax (2011 pop: 297,943). The dense urban core is centred on the Halifax Peninsula and the area of Dartmouth inside of the Circumferential Highway. The suburban area stretches into areas know as Mainland Halifax to the west, Cole Harbour to the east, and Bedford, Lower Sackville and Windsor Junction areas to the north.
This urban area is the most populous urban area on Canada’s Atlantic coast, and the second largest coastal population centre in the country, after Vancouver, British Columbia. Halifax currently accounts for 40% of Nova Scotia’s population, and 15% of that of Atlantic Canada.

The municipality of Halifax is centred on the urban core and surrounded by areas of decreasing density the farther the community is from the core. Rural areas lie to the east, west and north of this urban core. Certain rural communities on the urban fringe function as suburban or exurban areas, with the majority of those residents working in the urban core. Farther away, rural communities in the municipality function much as any resource-based area in Nova Scotia, being sparsely populated, with their local economies developing around four major resource industries: agriculture, fishing, mining and forestry. It should be noted that the tourism industry is beginning to change how some rural communities in Halifax function, particularly in coastal areas such as Hubbards, Peggys Cove and Lawrencetown.

The north eastern area centred on Sheet Harbour and the Musquodoboit Valley is completely rural, with more in common with adjacent rural areas of neighbouring counties.

The Halifax Regional Municipality is an amalgamation of four municipal governments in the urban and rural areas, therefore its composition of neighbourhoods and communities is unlike other municipalities such as a city.

There are over 200 official rural and urban communities within Halifax County that have maintained their original geographic names (including the dissolved cities of Halifax and Dartmouth and the town of Bedford). These community names are used on survey and mapping documents, for 9-1-1 service, municipal planning, and postal service.

The Halifax Regional Municipality is divided into eighteen community planning areas which are further divided into neighbourhoods or villages. The regional municipality has taken steps to reduce duplicate street names for its 9-1-1 emergency dispatch services; at the time of amalgamation, some street names were duplicated several times throughout the municipality.

Despite its coastal location, the climate of Halifax is humid continental, due to the prevailing westerly winds blowing from the mainland of the continent. Halifax’s climate is, however, heavily influenced by its location on Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast. The weather is usually milder in the winter or cooler in the summer than that of central Canada, with the temperature remaining (with occasional notable exceptions) between about −15 °C and 25 °C (5 °F to 77 °F) inland. Coastal sections have even less range due to strong maritime influence.

Precipitation is high year-round; snow, rain and ice mixes are common in the winter, though usually it is mild and rainy. Average monthly precipitation is highest from November to January due to intense late-fall to early-winter storms migrating usually from the Northeastern U.S., and lowest in summer, with August, the year’s warmest month on average, also its driest on average.

Halifax can receive extratropical storms, mostly between August and October. They are very rarely at hurricane force when they make landfall, the most recent exception being when Hurricane Juan, a Category 2 storm, hit in September 2003, and Hurricane Earl which grazed the coast as a Category 1 storm in 2010.

Atlantic sea surface temperatures off the coast of Nova Scotia were warmer than normal those years, and the accelerated storm tracks did not allow for the weakening that usually occurs with hurricanes moving over the colder waters of the Nova Scotia coast after passing the Gulf Stream.

The Halifax metro area includes 408,702 residents (2013 Statistics Canada estimate). In 2011 approximately 15% of the population was 14 years old or younger, while 13% were 65 and older.

The urban area of Halifax is a major economic centre in eastern Canada with a large concentration of government services and private sector companies. Halifax serves as the business, banking, government and cultural centre for the Maritime region. Major employers and economic generators include the Department of National Defence, as well as the Port of Halifax and Irving Shipbuilding Inc. The municipality has a growing concentration of manufacturing industries and is becoming a major multi-modal transportation hub through growth at the port, the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, and improving rail and highway connections. A real estate boom in recent years has led to numerous new property developments, including the gentrification of some former working-class areas.

Agriculture, fishing, mining, forestry and natural gas extraction are major resource industries found in the rural areas of the municipality. Halifax’s largest agricultural district is in the Musquodoboit Valley; the total number of farms in Halifax is 150, of which 110 are family-owned. Fishing harbours are located along all coastal areas with some having an independent harbour authority, and others being managed as small craft harbours under the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Other resource industries in Halifax include the natural gas fields off the coast of Sable Island, as well as clay, shale, gold, limestone, and gypsum extraction in rural areas of the mainland portion of the municipality.

The urban area of Halifax is a major cultural centre within the Atlantic provinces. The municipality’s urban core also benefits from a large population of post-secondary students who strongly influence the local cultural scene. Halifax has a number of art galleries, theatres and museums, as well as most of the region’s national-quality sports and entertainment facilities. The municipality is home to many performance venues, namely the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, the Neptune Theatre, and The Music Room. Halifax is also the home to many of the region’s major cultural attractions, such as Halifax Pop Explosion, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, The Khyber, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Neptune Theatre. The region is noted for the strength of its music scene and nightlife, especially in the central urban core. See List of musical groups from Halifax, Nova Scotia for a partial list.

Halifax hosts a wide variety of festivals that take place throughout the year, including: The Atlantic Film Festival, The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo, The Halifax Busker Festival, Greekfest, The Atlantic Jazz Festival, The Multicultural Festival, The largest Canada Day celebration east of Ottawa, Natal Day, periodic Tall Ship events, and Shakespeare by the Sea, to name a few. Many of these celebrations have become world renowned over the past several years.

Halifax has also become a significant film-production centre, with many American and Canadian filmmakers using the streetscapes, often to stand in for other cities that are more expensive to work in. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has its Atlantic Canada production centres (radio and television) based in Halifax, and quite a number of radio and television programs are made in the region for national broadcast.

The new Halifax Central Library on Spring Garden Road is nearing completion, has received accolades for its architecture and has been described as a new cultural locus, offering many community facilities including a 300-seat auditorium.

Halifax is considered by many to be the cultural centre of the Maritimes. The municipality has been able to maintain many of its maritime and military traditions, while opening itself to a growing multicultural population.

Halifax’s tourism industry showcases Nova Scotia’s culture, scenery and coastline. The area has many museums reflecting its ethnic heritage, including the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia. Others museums tell the story of its working history, such as the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It is also home to several internationally renowned events such as the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo, the Atlantic Film Festival and the Atlantic Fringe Festival. Halifax has numerous National Historic Sites, the most notable being Citadel Hill (Fort George) in Halifax.

The iconic Peggy’s Cove is internationally recognized and receives 600,000 plus visitors a year.

The Halifax Regional Municipality has a well-developed network of public and private schools, providing instruction from primary to grade twelve; one hundred and thirty seven public schools are administered by the Halifax Regional School Board, as well as four public schools administered by the Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial, whereas the fourteen private schools are operated independently.

The municipality is also home to the following post-secondary educational institutions: Dalhousie University, Saint Mary’s University, Mount Saint Vincent University, the Halifax campus of Université Sainte-Anne, University of King’s College, Atlantic School of Theology, NSCAD University, Nova Scotia Community College, and the Centre for Arts and Technology.

The presence of so many university and college students contributes to a vibrant youth culture in the region, as well as making it a major centre for university education in eastern Canada.