Dominion of Canada, 1871 to 1931
One of the first acts of Canada after confederation was the creation of a national census. The government took the first national census in 1871, and afterwards, they took national censuses every ten years. These records contain detailed information about individuals and their families, such as marital status, occupation, residence, gender and ethnicity. The questions asked on the census varied from year to year. The completeness of the records varies, so some information might be missing
Historical language
In your research, you may encounter historical language that is considered offensive today. Please read the notice about historical language in LAC’s collection.
On this page
Before you start
Gather information such as:
- name(s)
- approximate year of birth
- country of birth
- approximate year of arrival
- place of residence in Canada
Places to look
LAC holds the following census records from after Confederation:
| Census | Provinces and territories included |
|---|---|
| Census of Canada, 1871 | NB, NS, ON, QC |
| Census of Canada, 1881 | AB, BC, MB, NB, NS, ON, PEI, QC, NWT, SK |
| Census of Canada, 1891 | AB, BC, MB, NB, NS, ON, PEI, QC, NWT, SK |
| Census of Canada, 1901 | AB, BC, MB, NB, NS, ON, PEI, QC, NWT, SK, YT |
| Census of Canada, 1911 | AB, BC, MB, NB, NS, ON, PEI, QC, NWT, SK, YT |
| Census of Canada, 1921 | AB, BC, MB, NB, NS, ON, PEI, QC, NWT, SK, YT |
| Census of Canada, 1931Footnote 1 | AB, BC, MB, NB, NS, ON, PEI, QC, NWT, SK, YT |
Census records can be found in the Statistics Canada fonds, formerly known as RG31.
Schedules
Dominion of Canada censuses generally follow the same pattern. They include similar types of questionnaires known as schedules from year-to-year, such as:
- population (names)
- deaths (names)
- institution and real estate
- agricultural land and produce
- livestock and home industry products (fabric, cheese, fur)
- industry and industrial products
- forests and lumber
- shipping and fishing
- mining
In most cases, only the original records for Population (Schedule 1) were preserved.
What people were asked about
Most censuses contain the following information:
- location
- number of families
- names
- sex
- age
- relationship to head of household
- marital status
- country or province of birth
- religion
- ethnic origin
- nationality
- occupation
- education (including reading and writing)
- disabilities
Search tips
-
On some pages, part or all of the name column is missing because the left-hand margin of the page had been cut off. Since that information was missing from the microfilm, it is also missing in the digitized images. The originals no longer exist.
- Those pages are indexed in the database, but the information is incomplete. For example, the database entry might give age, place of birth, etc., but no name or only a partial name.
- The enumerators instructions are often helpful for interpreting the information collected on the census returns themselves.
- Some smaller sub-districts were combined by the enumerators. If you are doing a search by sub-district number, use only the first number for combined sub-districts. For example, in District 114, sub-districts 43 and 44 were combined. Enter only 43 when searching for that sub-district
- For help with definitions, see the list of terminology and abbreviations.
- For advanced search tips and techniques, such as how to search by place, see our General census guide.
Access the records
Non-digitized records
In 1955, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics was authorized by the Public Records Committee to microfilm and destroy the original records from 1881 onwards. As a result, only microfilm copies of the Dominion of Canada census records exist.
The original paper copies that still exist for censuses before 1881 are fragile and not available for consultation.
Digitized records
All of the Canadian census records from 1871 onwards are available on digitized microfilm and can be searched using the Census Search.