Census of Canada, 1881
The 1881 Census was the second federal census. It began on April 4, 1881 and had 172 questions across eight schedules. Real estate and industrial establishments were combined into a single Schedule. Only Schedule 1 from this census has been preserved. The location for each household was only recorded on schedule 3. Since that schedule no longer exists, there is no way to know exactly where a family lived.
Like 1871, the 1881 census also counted sea-going vessels, temporary housing, homes under construction, and uninhabited homes in Schedule 1.
Some of the pages were out of order when they were microfilmed. For example, pages in a sub-district might appear in this sequence: 1, 2, 5, 6, 3, 4, etc.
List of districts and sub-districts
Click on a province to get a listing of the census districts for that province, followed by a list of sub-districts and their descriptions.
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Northwest Territories
- Nova Scotia
- Ontario
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
Instructions to enumerators
Statistical summary
Column headings
Numbered in the Order of Visitation
Column 1. Vessels.
A count of the vessels. Numbered in the order visited by the enumerator.
Column 2. Shanties.
A count of the shanties. Numbered in the order visited by the enumerator.
Column 3. Houses in construction.
A count of the houses in construction. Numbered in the order visited by the enumerator.
Column 4. Houses uninhabited.
A count of the houses uninhabited. Numbered in the order visited by the enumerator.
Column 5. Houses inhabited.
A count of the houses inhabited. Numbered in the order visited by the enumerator.
Column 6. Families.
A count of the family or household. Two or more families that occupied the same house were to be numbered separately.
Column 7. Names.
Were to be entered with the surname (or last name) first.
Column 8. Sex.
Denoted by the letter “m” for male and “f” for female.
Column 9. Age
- At last birthday.
- For children under one year of age, fractions were used (for example, for 2 months, "2/12" was indicated).
Column 10. Born within last twelve months.
Month of birth for all infants born between April 4, 1880 and April 4, 1881.
Column 11. Country or province of birth
- For people born outside of Canada, the name of the country of origin (for example, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, and so on).
- For people born in Canada, the name of the province or territory.
Column 12. Religion
- The religion to which an individual claimed to belong, written in full.
- Abbreviations were used if the name was too long.
Column 13. Origin
- Indicated by a country name which might be different from the country of birth.
- "Indian" refers to individuals descended from Aboriginal peoples of Canada.
Column 14. Profession, occupation or trade
- More than one profession, occupation, or trade can be listed.
- Individuals studying a profession or trade were to be noted as students of that profession or trade.
- Individuals in college were entered as students; however, school children were not entered as students.
- For those who had no occupation other than household work, the symbol (--) was entered (nothing to be recorded).
Column 15. Married or widowed.
A dash (-) indicates that the individual had never been married.
Instruction
Column 16. Going to school.
A "1" indicates that the individual was attending school.
Infirmities
The degree of the infirmity needed to have reached the stage of incapacity to be noted.
Column 17. Deaf and dumb
Column 18. Blind
Column 19. Unsound mind
Column 20. Dates of operations and remarks.
Comments were made only in very special cases. The enumerator entered the day's date.