Victoria City, British Columbia (1921 census)

Name: Victoria City (1921)
Address: British Columbia, CA

Victoria City was a city in British Columbia, recorded in the 1921 Census of Canada with a population of 38,727. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q2132. The administrative centroid was at approximately 48.428°N, 123.356°W.

Population

In 1921, Victoria City had a population of 38,727: 20,107 male and 18,620 female residents.

Population trajectory across census years

Year	Population
1911	31,660
1921	38,727

Cross-year identity established by spatial polygon overlap (SAME_AS chains across the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary files).

Neighbouring Census Subdivisions in 1921

In the 1921 census, Victoria City shared boundaries with:

Saanich

Full census record, 1921

The 1921 census recorded 52 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 3 categories.

Population & families (1921). This community's record includes 38,727 total population, 20,107 males in the population, 18,620 females in the population, 9,466 females born in Canada, 8,509 males born in Canada, 7,788 males born in the British Empire (excluding Canada), 7,599 females born in the British Empire (excluding Canada), 3,810 males born outside the British Empire, 1,555 females born outside the British Empire. (Source: 1921 Census of Canada, V1T16.)

Ethnic origin (1921). This community's record includes 21,463 persons of British origin (English), 7,522 persons of British origin (Scotch / Scottish), 3,666 persons of Chinese or Japanese origin, 3,407 persons of British origin (Irish), 436 persons of Scandinavian origin, 429 persons of British origin (other), 362 persons of German origin, 359 persons of French origin, 225 persons of Italian origin, 121 persons of Dutch origin, 89 persons of other European origin, 70 persons of Greek origin, 48 persons of Russian origin, 44 persons of other Asian origin, 36 persons of Belgian origin, 31 persons of Finnish origin, 22 persons of Polish origin, 10 persons of Austrian origin, 1 persons of Ukrainian origin. 153 persons recorded under the 1921 official census category "Hebrew" (origin/ethnicity); now described as Jewish origin. 72 persons recorded under the 1911/1921 official census category "Negro"; refers to people of African descent. Term is now considered offensive and is preserved here only as the historical source label. 32 persons recorded under the official census category "Indian"; corresponds to what is now described as Indigenous (First Nations; in northern enumerations also Inuit) origin. "Indian" was simultaneously a census category and the legal/administrative term under the Indian Act (1876). (Source: 1921 Census of Canada, V1T27.)

Religion (1921). This community's record includes 15,562 Anglicans (Church of England), 7,877 Presbyterians, 5,045 Methodists, 2,448 Roman Catholics, 2,420 adherents of other sects (residual category in 1921), 2,325 adherents of Eastern religions, 1,182 Baptists, 313 Lutherans, 266 Congregationalists, 188 Salvation Army adherents, 186 Brethren, 148 Jews, 129 persons whose religion or origin is unspecified, 54 Greek (Orthodox) Church adherents, 42 Christians (general / no denomination specified), 39 Protestants (general / no denomination specified), 35 Adventists, 11 Mennonites, 6 Mormons (Latter-day Saints), 2 Disciples of Christ, 1 members of the Evangelical Association. (Source: 1921 Census of Canada, V1T27; V1T38.)

People with Dictionary of Canadian Biography entries

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography includes biographies of 34 people connected to this place who were alive in 1921, listed below by birth year. Each name links to that person's DCB entry.

Name	Lifespan	Connection
Sarah Lindley Crease	1826–1922	died here
Charles Mair	1838–1927	died here
Noah Shakespeare Canadian politician	1839–1921	died here
Edward Ludlow Wetmore	1841–1922	died here
Caroline Sarah Knott	1842–1930	died here
Margaret Townsend	1843–1923	died here
Nellie Cashman	1845–1925	died here
Elias Friedlander	1846–1927	died here
Charles Frederic Newcombe	1851–1924	died here
Maria Heathfield Pollard	1854–1937	died here
James William Troup	1855–1931	died here
John Pease Babcock	1855–1936	died here
John Oliver	1856–1927	died here
John Stoughton Dennis	1856–1938	died here
Sir Frank Stillman Barnard	1856–1936	died here
William L. Walsh	1857–1938	died here
James Alexander MacDonald	1858–1939	died here
Anne Cecilia McNaughton	1859–1938	died here
A. E. (Albert Edward) McPhillips	1861–1938	died here
Edward Alexander Partridge	1861–1931	died here
George Exton Lloyd	1861–1940	died here
Mary Agnes Bernard	1862–1933	died here
William Ernest Ditchburn	1862–1932	died here
Sir James Outram	1864–1925	died here
Walter Cameron Nichol	1866–1928	died here
James Hurst Hawthornthwaite	1869–1926	died here
Emily Carr	1871–1945	born and died here
Helen Letitia Mooney	1873–1951	died here
Milton Robbins Jennings	1874–1921	died here
Albert E. Todd	1878–1928	born here
Henry Joseph O'Leary	1879–1938	died here
Wenonah Marlatt	1883–1930	died here
Robert James Cromie	1887–1936	died here
Samuel Maclure	d. 1929	died here

Identifiers

TCP UID: BC217001 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
Persistent place ID: PLACE_BC217001 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
Wikidata: Q2132
Wikipedia (EN): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria,_British_Columbia
Wikipédia (FR): https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_(Colombie-Britannique)

Sources

Census tabulations from the 1921 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). "Victoria City, British Columbia (1921 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/bc/victoria-city-bc217001-1921/.