Prairie Provinces census, 1870 to 1926
Upon joining Confederation, a separate census for Manitoba was taken in 1870. In 1906, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan started taking their own censuses. They took a census of population and agriculture to track the growth in the West. This happened every 10 years, alternating years with the national censuses. These records contain detailed information about individuals and their families, such as marital status, occupation, residence, gender, ethnicity. The specific questions asked on the census varied from year to year. The completeness of the records varies, so some information might be missing.
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 the Prairie Provinces:
| Census | Provinces and territories included |
|---|---|
| Census of Manitoba, 1870 | Manitoba |
| Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906 | Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan |
| Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1916 | Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan |
| Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1926 | Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan |
Census records can be found in the Statistics Canada fonds, formerly known as RG31.
Schedules
Prairie Provinces censuses generally follow the same pattern. They include similar types of questionnaires known as schedules from year-to-year, such as:
- population (names)
- livestock
- agriculture
Only the original records for Schedule 1, Population were preserved.
What people were asked about
Most censuses contain the following information:
- location
- sex
- number of families
- name of the father
- names
- ethnic origin
- birthplace
- marital status
- age
- nationality
- religion
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 enumerator's instructions are often helpful for interpreting the information collected on the census returns themselves.
- For rural locations, you will often see numbers. These are sections, townships, ranges and meridians.
- 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 census records exist.
The original paper copies that still exist for census before 1881 are fragile and not available for consultation.
Digitized records
All of the Prairie Province census records from 1870 onwards are available on digitized microfilm and can be searched using the Census search.