Gays River, Nova Scotia (1881 census)

Gays River was a census subdivision in Nova Scotia, recorded in the 1881 Census of Canada with a population of 786. The administrative centroid was at approximately 45.009°N, 63.331°W.

Population

In 1881, Gays River had a population of 786: 397 male and 389 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, Gays River shared boundaries with:

• Fall River
• Little River
• Lower Stewiacke
• Middle Musquodoboit
• Nine Mile River
• NO DATA

Full census record, 1881

The 1881 census recorded 30 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 4 categories.

Population & families (1881). This community's record includes 786 total population, 397 males, 389 females, 250 married persons, 135 families, 126 married females, 124 married males, 33 widowed persons, 17 widowed males, 16 widowed females. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Age structure (1881). This community's record includes 503 single persons under 18, 256 single males under 18, 247 single females under 18. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Buildings & housing (1881). This community's record includes 135 occupied houses, 133 inhabited houses, 2 dwellings that are temporary shanties. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Agriculture (1881). This community's record includes 11,753 bushels of potatoes, 3,723 bushels of oats, 3,333 bushels of turnips, 2,653 tons of hay, 2,184 bushels of spring wheat, 2,171 acres of hay crops, 1,225 bushels of buckwheat, 518 bushels of other root crops, 297 bushels of barley, 206 acres of wheat, 120 bushels of peas and beans, 106 acres of potatoes, 17 bushels of clover, timothy, or other grass seed, 3 bushels of corn. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V3T24.)

Residents in 1881

The 1881 census residents page for this Census Subdivision lists 786 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: NS010031 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
• Persistent place ID: PLACE_NS011010 — 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 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). "Gays River, Nova Scotia (1881 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/ns/gays-river-ns010031-1881/.