Historic census data

[Docere]

Since there's seems to be some interest, I've been compiling some historic Census data and I thought I'd share here, rather than "corrupt" other threads.

I start with the 1931 census. I like this one because 1) they start having some good cross-classification data and 2) it's at the tail end after the major 20th century immigration (and there's little immigration for 20 years).

Feel free to pose any questions/requests and I'll do my best to find some data!

[Docere]

Here is the percentage of the population is at least 3rd generation Canadian. Big east-west difference and very evident in "Canadian" responses today.

Both parents Canadian-born

PEI 88.5%
Nova Scotia 79.7%
New Brunswick 83.4%
Quebec 82.6%
Ontario 48.5%
Manitoba 26.1%
Saskatchewan 23.1%
Alberta 19.2%
BC 18.9%

Canada total 53.4%

[Docere]

Interesting to see the multilingual nature of some immigration sources. Mother tongue for selected countries of birth.

Born in Poland

Ukrainian 67,226 39.3%
Polish 61,056 35.7%
Yiddish 24,080 14.1%
German 13,517 7.9%

Born in Romania

Ukrainian 12,809 31.8%
Romanian 8,496 21.1%
German 8,046 20%
Yiddish 7,444 18.5%
Magyar 1,584 3.9%

Born in Russia

German 44,836 39.1%
Yiddish 39,237 34.3%
Russian 22,240 19.4%

Born in United States

English 230,779 67%
French 47,267 13.7%
German 23,675 6.9%
Norwegian 14,432 4.2%

[SignalHillHiker]

I love these sorts of things.

Going through the 1891 Newfoundland census...

Population of St. John's, City only: 29,007
Population of St. John's District, smaller than current CMA: 36,027
Born in Newfoundland: 34,075

The only other countries we recorded were England, Ireland, Scotland, British Colonies (which includes fellow Dominions such as Canada), and Foreign Countries (literally the rest of the world ).

Beyond that, trying to compare to the Canadian Census of 1931, the closest we have is the Newfoundland Census of 1935.

At that time...

Population of the City of St. John's: 39,886
Population of Newfoundland and her Dependencies (Labrador): 289,516
Born in Newfoundland and her Dependencies: 285,407
Born in England: 571
Born in Scotland: 317
Born in Ireland: 135
Born in Wales: 17
Born in Lesser British Isles: 4
Born in British Possessions: 1,447
(For some reason this is where Canada is counted, which is 1,420 of that total).

And the most delightful one of all:
Born at Sea: 17

Foreign Born: 1,601
And within that category:
United States: 1,032 (anecdotally, much of this would've been families from the Boston area with existing connections to Newfoundland; there was a lot of back and forth between the two at that time)
China: 136
Syria: 81 (again, anecdotally, but today they'd consider their heritage Lebanese and are one of the most well-known, established, "foundational" non-British groups. Even our provincial NDP leader is Lebanese in origin)
France: 61
Poland: 56
St-Pierre et Miquelon (France): 55
Russia: 42
Germany: 32
Others: 106

It's interesting how low the numbers can be compared to their influence. I suppose it has to do with the huge families back then? So you have St. John's as a city of about 40K and 81 people born in Syria/Lebanon. We had huge families then - both my parents have 13 siblings, my maternal grandfather had 22. 5-6 kids would've been a small family so that 81 actually born overseas probably represents several hundred people born in Newfoundland who consciously identify with their Syrian/Lebanese heritage. And even that seems low given their influence - especially commercially.

[Docere]

While I haven't seen Newfoundland stats, the 1931 census showed about 2,000 people of "other Asiatic" origin (basically Syrian-Lebanese) in the Maritimes. That's larger than the East Indian population in BC then.

[Docere]

Other Asiatic origin, 1931:

Sydney 277 1.2%
Halifax 269 0.5%
Saint John 121 0.3%
Charlottetown 107 0.8%

(virtually all Syrian-Lebanese, but not available at municipal level. 98% of "other Asiatics" with a non-official language as MT in the Maritimes are of "Syrian and Arabic MT").

[Docere]

The St. John's 1891 data is fascinating.

So China is the most common non-anglosphere country of birth - though I wonder if there's a good number of "missionaries in China" in those numbers and how many are ethnic Chinese.

Russia and Poland I assume are mostly Jews?

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Docere

Other Asiatic origin, 1931:

Sydney 277 1.2%
Halifax 269 0.5%
Saint John 121 0.3%
Charlottetown 107 0.8%

(virtually all Syrian-Lebanese, but not available at municipal level. 98% of "other Asiatics" with a non-official language as MT in the Maritimes are of "Syrian and Arabic MT").

There's a bunch of information here about NS: https://archives.novascotia.ca/genea...ural-diversity

Mostly about much earlier groups but there is a page on 20th century immigration too, and some information about immigration to Industrial Cape Breton specifically. Sydney was the biggest town in that area but it was more of a cluster of complementary industrial towns (coal mines in one place, steel mill in another town nearby, port somewhere else) than a metropolitan area based around commuting patterns to one city. A mini version of the Midlands or Rhine-Ruhr. New Glasgow was like this too. Sometimes all of these areas are collectively referred to as "Northern Nova Scotia", which on average had a different economy than the south.

1931 was a different time in the Maritimes than the rest of Canada. In the 1900-1930 period most of the rest of Canada was booming while the Maritimes generally stagnated (and a lot of industry in Halifax was destroyed in 1917). During the 1930's they regained some ground while the previously booming areas suffered more greatly from the Depression.

I am not sure that this was so extreme that minority groups like this shrank but if you looked at proportions from 1871-1931 I think you'd see a different trajectory in the Maritimes. Comparatively larger-sized minority groups like this earlier on in the period compared to Ontario or Quebec and comparatively smaller near the end of the period.

I would also expect earlier information about ethnicity to be difficult to compare to the later statistics. A blurb about the 20th century:

If you look at any map of North America, you’ll see that the continent tapers to the northeast. Nova Scotia is the last step before you need a vessel to travel further east. Now think of Nova Scotia as the narrow end of a funnel which expands west and southwest into the heart of North America. Once you do that, you can see immediately how and why this province became the doorstep into Canada and beyond.

In the days before passports and formal immigration, people coming from overseas travelled by boat and simply ‘arrived’, entering mostly through Halifax, Yarmouth or Sydney. The majority moved on, but enough stayed to make a difference.

Jewish people have been in Nova Scotia in small numbers since the earliest days. Nathan Levy and Samuel Hart, for example, were important merchants in early Halifax; their descendants later assimilated into the general population. By the 1920s, the community in Halifax was large enough to support a synagogue and resident rabbi.

Later immigrants, especially from eastern Europe, settled in Yarmouth and Sydney. The 1901 Census counted 449 Jewish people in the province. By 1921 this had quadrupled to 2,161, but the numbers have never been large. In recent years, the Glube, Pink and Gaum families have been prominent in the province’s professional and political life.

Between 1885 and 1915, hundreds of Lebanese -- then called ‘Syrians’ – settled in Nova Scotia, fleeing oppression and genocide in the Middle East. Family names such as Abbass, Laba, Joseph and Amyooney form what some now call the ‘old Lebanese,’ to differentiate them from the ‘new Lebanese’ who arrived after 1951, following relaxation of Canadian immigration regulations.

I didn't know that names like Joseph or Hart are associated with Lebanese or Jewish immigrants. In the past, a lot of family names were changed when people immigrated to Canada.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by someone123

I didn't know that names like Joseph or Hart are associated with Lebanese or Jewish immigrants. In the past, a lot of family names were changed when people immigrated to Canada.

In Quebec at least the name "Hart" has long been associated with Jews. I believe the first Jewish person elected to any office in Canada was Ézékiel Hart in Trois-Rivières - this was ages ago.

Also the Quebec-based discount department store chain Hart was founded by Jews of that name as well in the 50s or 60s.

Some of the Hart family ended up intermarrying with the Catholic French Canadians though.

A boxer from my region is called Gaétan Hart and he AFAIK is not Jewish. (Hart was involved in a fight that led to the death of opponent Cleveland Denny in the 80s.)

[SignalHillHiker]

I assume actually Chinese. Check any daily from that era and there are a dozen or more advertisements for Chinese laundries. And those would be the more proper ones - most were in the Central Slum:

MUN Archives:

The Russians and Germans are likely our Jewish community, yes. The Poles, though, are likely not - and not even in St. John's. Quite a lot of them settled in Harbour Breton.

[Capsicum]

Looks like the Lebanese Newfoundlanders back in the day often passed through Ellis Island before heading to Newfoundland. Interesting, in light of modern day discussions of immigrant retention, that some early immigrants were passing by North America's largest and most immigrant-dense city, to settle in Newfoundland.

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/s...nic-groups.php

"Immigrants from Mount Lebanon arrived at Newfoundland and Labrador – and elsewhere in North and South America – during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to escape religious persecution, poverty, and military conscription within the Turkish Empire. Most immigrants first landed at Ellis Island in New York Harbour before proceeding to Nova Scotia and then across the Cabot Strait to Newfoundland. These men and women initially referred to themselves as Syrians, Assyrians, or Maronites, but assumed the designation Lebanese after the Republic of Lebanon formed in 1920."

Early Chinese immigrants also docked in Vancouver, then took a long cross-country Canadian route (since they weren't welcome in Canada at the time) to get to Newfoundland.

"Most immigrants disembarked at Vancouver, where they could either remain or continue east. Those wishing to enter Newfoundland and Labrador had to travel by rail to Halifax and then board a steamer to the island of Newfoundland. Because the Canadian government imposed a head tax of $50 on Chinese immigrants after 1885 (which it raised to $500 in 1903), mounted police escorted Newfoundland-bound immigrants for much of their journey east to ensure they did not try to covertly settle in Canada."

[Docere]

Syrian and Arabic MT, 1931:

Canada total 9,226

PEI 83
Nova Scotia 847
New Brunswick 502
Quebec 3,483
Ontario 3,026
Manitoba 320
Saskatchewan 571
Alberta 211
BC 175

Estimated Syrian-Lebanese population, 1931:

Canada total 10,928

PEI 135
Nova Scotia 1,178
New Brunswick 639
Quebec 3,859
Ontario 3,590
Manitoba 441
Saskatchewan 708
Alberta 346
BC 186

Syrian origin is usually lumped in with "other Asiatics." I calculated the percentage of the other Asiatic group that was not of English or French MT that had Syrian and Arabic MT and assumed that the percenatage was the same for the entire "other Asiatic" population. In Canada as a whole, 74% of "other Asiatics are of Syrian and Arabic MT, and they're the vast majority of "other Asiatics" outside BC.

The Syrian-Lebanese are not only of the most "Eastern" immigrant groups in the early 20th century, but they're probably the only immigrant group whose numbers in the Maritimes exceed those of Western Canada in the 1931 census.

[Docere]

Asian groups in BC, 1931:

Chinese 27,139 3.9%
Japanese 22,205 3.2%
East Indian (est.) 1,475 0.2%

Virtually all Japanese were in BC but only 58% of Chinese were.

Chinese population outside BC, 1931:

Ontario 6,919
Alberta 3,875
Saskatchewan 3,501
Quebec 2,750
Manitoba 1,732
Maritimes 602

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by Docere

Asian groups in BC, 1931:

Chinese 27,139 3.9%
Japanese 22,205 3.2%
East Indian (est.) 1,475 0.2%

Virtually all Japanese were in BC but only 58% of Chinese were.

Chinese population outside BC, 1931:

Ontario 6,919
Alberta 3,875
Saskatchewan 3,501
Quebec 2,750
Manitoba 1,732
Maritimes 602

I would imagine that there were relatively few Chinese women, though. Virtually every Chinese person I've seen on the Prairies in my use of historical census data was a male laundryman (maybe the odd restaurant owner in there too).

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Andy6

I would imagine that there were relatively few Chinese women, though. Virtually every Chinese person I've seen on the Prairies in my use of historical census data was a male laundryman (maybe the odd restaurant owner in there too).

Yes, very much so. Chinese men outnumbered women by a ratio of more of 10 to 1!

[Capsicum]

Who exactly were the "Asiatic" or "Asian" groups in Canada that had a sizeable population at this time -- the Chinese, Japanese, East Indians (mostly Sikhs) and Syrian-Lebanese, right? It's pretty much these four or so, I'm guessing?

Other groups from Asia (be they Turks, Persians, Koreans, Filipinos) are pretty much late 20th century, aren't they?

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

Who exactly were the "Asiatic" or "Asian" groups in Canada that had a sizeable population at this time -- the Chinese, Japanese, East Indians (mostly Sikhs) and Syrian-Lebanese, right? It's pretty much these four or so, I'm guessing?

Other groups from Asia (be they Turks, Persians, Koreans, Filipinos) are pretty much late 20th century, aren't they?

Yeah pretty much. The rest are pretty much post-1960 immigrants. There's no Census data on the other groups (and Statscan didn't even think East Indians were significant enough to bother counting).

Obviously Japanese Canadians are the most "multi-generational" today since immigration from Japan has been pretty modest.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Docere

Asian groups in BC, 1931:

Chinese 27,139 3.9%
Japanese 22,205 3.2%
East Indian (est.) 1,475 0.2%

Virtually all Japanese were in BC but only 58% of Chinese were.

Chinese population outside BC, 1931:

Ontario 6,919
Alberta 3,875
Saskatchewan 3,501
Quebec 2,750
Manitoba 1,732
Maritimes 602

Originally Posted by Docere

Yeah pretty much. The rest are pretty much post-1960 immigrants. There's no Census data on the other groups (and Statscan didn't even think East Indians were significant enough to bother counting).

Obviously Japanese Canadians are the most "multi-generational" today since immigration from Japan has been pretty modest.

Chinese were pretty much the largest group of Asian Canadians through the entire history of Asian immigration to Canada, from the late 1800s to today right?

And they were probably a majority of Asian Canadians up until the liberalization of immigration policy in the 1960s.

In the US, Chinese Americans dropped to 50% or less of Asian Americans in the early 20th century (after which Japanese became the majority of Asian Americans for a while, with the addition of a small Filipino and Korean population, which Canada lacked in any significant number until the 1960s or later), decades pretty soon after the Chinese exclusion act. However, unlike in the US, Canada's way of excluding Chinese immigrants, the head tax, did not stop a rise in Chinese population at the time, until a 1920s ban lowered the Chinese population for a few decades.

I still remember that thread in city discussions a while back about whether "Pan-Asian identity" existed in the US or Canada, and how Canada has very little Pan-Asian identity, which makes sense if Asian more or less meant majority Chinese throughout the majority of the country's history.

[saffronleaf]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

Chinese were pretty much the largest group of Asian Canadians through the entire history of Asian immigration to Canada, from the late 1800s to today right?

And they were probably a majority of Asian Canadians up until the liberalization of immigration policy in the 1960s.

In the US, Chinese Americans dropped to 50% or less of Asian Americans in the early 20th century (after which Japanese became the majority of Asian Americans for a while, with the addition of a small Filipino and Korean population, which Canada lacked in any significant number until the 1960s or later), decades pretty soon after the Chinese exclusion act. However, unlike in the US, Canada's way of excluding Chinese immigrants, the head tax, did not stop a rise in Chinese population at the time, until a 1920s ban lowered the Chinese population for a few decades.

I still remember that thread in city discussions a while back about whether "Pan-Asian identity" existed in the US or Canada, and how Canada has very little Pan-Asian identity, which makes sense if Asian more or less meant majority Chinese throughout the majority of the country's history.

In the US it feels like the existence of a pan-Asian identity depends on whether the subgroups have sufficient numbers to perform certain functions. For example, in a metropolitan area like Denver which has few Asians, you tend to find South Asians, Southeast Asians and East Asians represented in groups like the Asian American Chamber of Commerce, the Asia-Pacific American Law Students Association, the Asia-Pacific American Bar Association, and in organized events on places like meetup.com. In those cases, there appears to be some sort of Pan-Asian identity.

Conversely, places like the San Francisco Bay Area tend to have large enough South Asian, Southeast Asian and East Asian populations that they have thriving subgroups, including for example the South Asian Law Students Association (separate from the Asia-Pacific Law Students Association, which is mostly East Asians). I think in places like that a Pan-Asian identity is weaker.

[Docere]

Here's some Asian populations in some smaller Lower Mainland cities.

Unfortunately, the Census lumps "Chinese and Japanese" together for small municipalities. I think these BC communities were much more Japanese though (Chinese were much more concentrated in Vancouver and Victoria).

Chinese and Japanese population, 1931:

Richmond 3,262 39.9%
Maple Ridge 1,351 27.4%
Mission 622 27.3%
Pitt Meadows 145 17.4%