Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (1881 census)

Cape Sable Island was a census subdivision in Nova Scotia, recorded in the 1881 Census of Canada with a population of 1,991. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q2937147. The administrative centroid was at approximately 43.466°N, 65.605°W.

Population

In 1881, Cape Sable Island had a population of 1,991: 1,000 male and 991 female residents.

Population trajectory across census years

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

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.

Later boundary forms

• In a later year, this CSD contained Cape Sable Island, 1891 (54.8% of this CSD's polygon).
• In a later year, this CSD contained Cape Sable Island Centre, 1891 (45.2% of this CSD's polygon).

Full census record, 1881

The 1881 census recorded 43 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 5 categories.

Population & families (1881). This community's record includes 1,991 total population, 1,000 males, 991 females, 724 married persons, 395 families, 363 married males, 361 married females, 71 widowed persons, 53 widowed females, 18 widowed males. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Age structure (1881). This community's record includes 1,196 single persons under 18, 619 single males under 18, 577 single females under 18. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Buildings & housing (1881). This community's record includes 370 inhabited houses, 370 occupied houses, 15 uninhabited houses, 7 houses under construction. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Agriculture (1881). This community's record includes 10,391 bushels of potatoes, 670 tons of hay, 442 bushels of turnips, 387 acres of hay crops, 182 bushels of other root crops, 150 bushels of oats, 76 acres of potatoes, 27 bushels of peas and beans, 5 bushels of clover, timothy, or other grass seed, 2 bushels of barley, 1 bushels of corn. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V3T24.)

Fisheries (1881). This community's record includes 13,951 quintals of cod, 10,277 fathoms of fishing nets, 6,005 barrels of mackerel, 3,730 gallons of fish oil, 2,355 quintals of haddock, hake, or pollock, 1,223 barrels of herring or alewives, 480 barrels of other fish, 231 men on fishing vessels, 217 men on fishing boats, 185 fishing boats, 44 barrels of gaspareaux, 16 fishing vessels, 9 quintals of fascines fish, 2 shoremen. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V3T27.) The 1881 enumerator also recorded 1 barrels of shad — single-county tallies of limited cross-year comparability.

Residents in 1881

The 1881 census residents page for this Census Subdivision lists 1,991 individuals enumerated here, with name, age, sex, religion, ethnic origin, birthplace, and occupation. Source: TCP/Dillon 1881 Canadian Census deposit at Borealis.

Identifiers

• TCP UID: NS013009 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
• Persistent place ID: PLACE_NS042003 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
• Wikidata: Q2937147

Sources

Census tabulations from the 1881 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). "Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (1881 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/ns/cape-sable-island-ns013009-1881/.