Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1916

The second of the Prairie Province Censuses began on June 1, 1916. Only the Population Schedule has survived and had 26 questions.

In addition to standard questions, this census asked questions about:

• military service
• year of immigration and naturalization
• languages spoken other than English or French

It also has extra information about occupations.

List of districts and sub-districts

Select a province to get a listing of the census districts for that province, followed by a list of sub-districts and their descriptions.

• Alberta
• Manitoba
• Saskatchewan

Instructions to enumerators

• Instructions to Commissioners and Enumerators

Statistical summary

• Population and Agriculture: Manitoba, Saskatchewan

Column headings

• Number in the Order of Visitation

  Column 1. Dwelling House
  A count of the houses in which there is a family or a household.

  Column 2. Family, Household or Institution
  A count of the families or households, entered opposite the name of the head of the family.

  Residence and Personal Description

  Column 3. Name of each person in the family, household or institution

  • Entered with the surname (or last name) first. If applicable, a middle initial could be entered.
  • Entered in the following order:
    • Head
    • Wife
    • Sons and daughters (in the order of their ages)
    • Relatives, servants, boarders, lodgers or other persons.

  Column 4. Military Service

  • Special column listed all persons living in the Prairie Provinces who had enlisted for military service and were either in training camps in Canada or were overseas.
  • If overseas "O" was entered; if in Canada "C" was entered. The name of the camp was entered in column 8.

  Place of Habitation

  In rural localities give parish, township, range and meridian. In cities, towns and villages, give street and number of dwelling.

  Column 5. Township
  The number of the township.

  Column 6. Range
  The number of the range.

  Column 7. Meridian
  The number of the meridian.

  Column 8. Municipality
  The name of the municipality.

  Column 9. Relationship to head of family or household
  The head of the family (or household or institution) was entered as such (i.e. head), with the remaining members and their relation to the head (e.g. wife, son, daughter, servant, boarder, lodger, partner, etc.).

  Column 10. Sex
  Denoted by "m" for male and "f" for female.

  Column 11. Single, married, widowed, divorced or legally separated
  Denoted by "s" (single person), "m" (married), and "w" (widowed), "d" (divorced) and "l.s." (legally separated).

  Column 12. Age at last birthday

  • Age at last birthday prior to June 1, 1916.
  • For children under one year of age, fractions were used (for example, for 2 months, "2/12" was indicated).

  Nativity and Religion

  Column 13. Country or place of birth

  • For those born in Canada, the name of the province or territory was noted.
  • Abbreviations were used for provinces.
  • Otherwise, the name was written in full.

  Column 14. Religion
  As declared.

  Citizenship

  Column 15. Year of immigration to Canada

  • The year in which the individual moved to Canada from another country.
  • The year in which Canadian-born persons had returned to Canada after living in another country.

  Column 16. Year of naturalization

  • For persons 21 years old and older who were born in a country other than the United Kingdom or any of its dependencies.
  • If a person had applied for citizenship but had not yet reached full status, this was indicated by the letters "pa." for papers.

  Column 17. Nationality

  • People born in Canada or naturalized citizens were considered "Canadians".
  • The country of birth or the country to which the person professed to owe allegiance.

  Race and Language

  Column 18. Racial or tribal origin

  • Usually traced through the father, except for aboriginals for whom the origin is traced through the mother.
  • Names of their tribes should have been given.
  • Children from interracial unions were classed as "Negro" (black and white races) or "Mongolian" (yellow [Chinese or Japanese] and white races).

  Column 19. Can speak English
  Yes or no.

  Column 20. Can speak French
  Yes or no.

  Column 21. Other language spoken as mother tongue.
  Selected one of the following:

  • Armenian
  • Bohemian
  • Bulgarian
  • Chinese
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Finnish
  • Gaelic
  • German
  • Greek
  • Japanese
  • Lithuanian
  • Magyar
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Rumanian
  • Russian
  • Ruthenian
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian or Wendish
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Syrian
  • Turkish
  • Welsh
  • Yiddish or Jewish

  Education

  Column 22. Can read
  Yes or no.

  Column 23. Can write
  Yes or no.

  Profession, Occupation or Means of Living

  Column 24. Chief Occupation or Trade

  • For every person of 10 years and older.
  • The particular work done for which the individual earned money, or the word "income" or "none".

  Column 25. Employer "e", Employee or worker "w", Working on own account "o.a."

  How the individual earned his/her income.

  Column 26. State where person was employed as "on farm", "in cotton mill", "in foundry", "in dry goods store", "in saw-mill", etc.

  Where the person was employed when an occupation or trade in indicated in Column 24.