Chester, Nova Scotia (1881 census)

Chester was a census subdivision in Nova Scotia, recorded in the 1881 Census of Canada with a population of 2,974. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q1070656. The administrative centroid was at approximately 44.635°N, 64.320°W.

Population

In 1881, Chester had a population of 2,974: 1,490 male and 1,484 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).

Neighbouring Census Subdivisions in 1881

In the 1881 census, Chester shared boundaries with:

• Baywater
• Blockhouse
• Mill Cove
• New Ross
• NO DATA
• NO DATA
• Windsor Forks

Full census record, 1881

The 1881 census recorded 47 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 5 categories.

Population & families (1881). This community's record includes 2,974 total population, 1,490 males, 1,484 females, 944 married persons, 540 families, 474 married males, 470 married females, 103 widowed persons, 78 widowed females, 25 widowed males. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Age structure (1881). This community's record includes 1,927 single persons under 18, 991 single males under 18, 936 single females under 18. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Buildings & housing (1881). This community's record includes 471 occupied houses, 469 inhabited houses, 11 uninhabited houses, 6 houses under construction, 2 dwellings that are temporary shanties. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Agriculture (1881). This community's record includes 26,262 bushels of potatoes, 7,342 bushels of barley, 4,751 bushels of turnips, 3,585 bushels of other root crops, 2,373 acres of hay crops, 2,138 tons of hay, 1,458 bushels of oats, 733 bushels of spring wheat, 343 acres of potatoes, 242 bushels of buckwheat, 179 bushels of peas and beans, 108 acres of wheat, 52 bushels of rye, 1 bushels of clover, timothy, or other grass seed, 1 bushels of corn. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V3T24.)

Fisheries (1881). This community's record includes 12,606 fathoms of fishing nets, 2,457 barrels of mackerel, 1,407 quintals of cod, 820 barrels of herring or alewives, 505 gallons of fish oil, 174 men on fishing boats, 135 fishing boats, 19 barrels of gaspareaux, 15 men on fishing vessels, 4 barrels of eels, 2 shoremen, 1 fishing vessels, 1 quintals of haddock, hake, or pollock. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V3T27.) The 1881 enumerator also recorded 125,000 pounds of lobster canned — single-county tallies of limited cross-year comparability.

People with Dictionary of Canadian Biography entries

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography includes biographies of 3 people connected to this place who were alive in 1881, listed below by birth year. Each name links to that person's DCB entry.

Residents in 1881

The 1881 census residents page for this Census Subdivision lists 2,974 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: NS011006 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
• Persistent place ID: PLACE_NS038004 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
• Wikidata: Q1070656

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). "Chester, Nova Scotia (1881 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/ns/chester-ns011006-1881/.