New Westminster, British Columbia (1891 census)

Name: New Westminster (1891)
Address: British Columbia, CA

New Westminster was a census subdivision in British Columbia, recorded in the 1891 Census of Canada with a population of 21,839. The administrative centroid was at approximately 55.743°N, 127.695°W.

Population

In 1891, New Westminster had a population of 21,839: 13,780 male and 8,059 female residents.

Boundary continuity (non-identical overlaps)

Spatial polygon overlaps with adjacent census years where the boundary shifted enough that the SAME_AS chain didn't merge them. These show where the territory came from and went to even when it isn't tracked as the same persistent place.

Earlier boundary forms

In an earlier year, this CSD contained South, 1881 (0.4% share).
In an earlier year, this CSD contained North, 1881 (4.0% share).
In an earlier year, this CSD contained Coast of main land, 1881 (27.1% share).
In an earlier year, this CSD contained Cassiar, Northern Interior, 1881 (58.8% share).

Later boundary forms

In a later year, this CSD contained Chilliwak, 1901 (0.2% of this CSD's polygon).
In a later year, this CSD contained Richmond, 1901 (0.4% of this CSD's polygon).
In a later year, this CSD contained Cassiar (Skeena), 1901 (56.2% of this CSD's polygon).
In a later year, this CSD contained Cassiar (Stikine), 1901 (41.4% of this CSD's polygon).
In a later year, this CSD contained Bennett & Atlin, 1901 (0.0% of this CSD's polygon).
In a later year, this CSD contained Delta, 1901 (0.2% of this CSD's polygon).

Neighbouring Census Subdivisions in 1891

In the 1891 census, New Westminster shared boundaries with:

Full census record, 1891

The 1891 census recorded 88 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 5 categories.

Population & families (1891). This community's record includes 21,839 total population, 13,780 males, 8,059 females, 7,552 married persons, 4,710 families, 4,180 married males, 3,372 married females, 861 widowed persons, 460 widowed females, 401 widowed males, 4.60 average size of families. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V1T2; V1T3.)

Age structure (1891). This community's record includes 13,426 single persons under 18, 9,199 single males under 18, 4,227 single females under 18. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V1T3.)

Ethnic origin (1891). This community's record includes 21,494 persons who are not French Canadian, 345 French Canadians. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V1T3.)

Buildings & housing (1891). This community's record includes 4,698 occupied houses, 3,853 houses, 3,850 houses built of wood, 3,196 houses of 1 story, 1,443 houses of 1 room, 845 dwellings that are vessels and shanties, 746 houses of 2 rooms, 650 houses of 2 stories, 496 houses of 6 to 10 rooms, 412 houses of 4 rooms, 385 houses of 3 rooms, 353 uninhabited houses, 290 houses of 5 rooms, 101 houses under construction, 57 houses of 11 to 15 rooms, 23 houses of over 15 rooms, 6 houses of 3 stories, 1 houses built of brick, 1 houses built of stone. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V1T2.)

Agriculture (1891). This community's record includes 471,449 bushels of oats, 366,080 acres of land in farms, 292,996 bushels of potatoes, 260,794 bushels of turnips, 257,656 acres of farmland in woodland or forest, 86,326 acres of farmland in pasture, 59,214 bushels of spring wheat, 57,025 chickens, 38,710 bushels of peas, 35,196 tons of hay, 33,361 pounds of homemade butter, 29,051 bushels of barley, 22,098 acres of improved land in farms, 19,007 acres of farmland under crops, 16,161 acres of hay crops, 13,276 pounds of coarse wool produced on farms, 12,601 acres of oats, 11,409 sheep, 10,047 other cattle, 10,008 swine, 8,672 sheep slaughtered or sold, 7,670 bushels of winter wheat, 7,363 swine slaughtered or sold, 6,150 milk cows, 5,831 pounds of fine wool produced on farms, 5,404 ducks, 3,471 horses aged over 3 years, 3,091 acres of farmland in gardens or orchards, 2,518 cattle killed or sold, 2,216 occupants of farms, 2,168 acres of wheat, 2,065 bushels of corn, 2,032 turkeys, 1,867 farm occupants who own their land, 1,708 acres of potatoes, 1,438 oxen, 1,281 persons living on farms between 101 and 200 acres, 1,232 bushels of clover, timothy, or other grass seed, 1,132 horses aged 3 years and under, 799 geese, 678 acres of barley, 660 bushels of beans, 598 acres of turnips, 352 persons living on farms under 10 acres, 308 farm occupants who rent their land, 247 persons living on farms over 200 acres, 209 persons living on farms between 51 and 100 acres, 172 other fowl, 160 bushels of rye, 146 pounds of cheese produced on farms, 140 bushels of buckwheat, 127 persons living on farms between 11 and 50 acres, 41 employees on farms. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V2T16; V4T2; V4T3.)

People with Dictionary of Canadian Biography entries

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography includes biographies of 4 people connected to this place who were alive in 1891, listed below by birth year. Each name links to that person's DCB entry.

Name	Lifespan	Connection
Eda'nsa	1810–1894	died here
Malcolm Alexander MacLean	1844–1895	died here
Roderick Ogle Bell-Irving	1891–1918	born here
Paul Legaic	d. 1894	died here

Identifiers

TCP UID: BC002001 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
Persistent place ID: PLACE_BC002001 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
Wikidata: not yet grounded. This page covers a place whose persistent identity has not yet been linked to a Wikidata entity. Identification is via TCP UID and spatial polygon only.

Sources

Census tabulations from the 1891 Census of Canada, transcribed and georeferenced by the Canadian Peoples / TCP project, hosted at the HGIS Lab, University of Saskatchewan. Persistent place identity computed from spatial-overlap chains across all available census years (1851–1921). Identity grounding to Wikidata performed via the HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph project's MCP-assisted disambiguation pipeline. See the About / Methodology page for the full data pipeline.

Cite this page

Clifford, J. (2026). "New Westminster, British Columbia (1891 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/bc/new-westminster-bc002001-1891/.