Colborne, Ontario (1881 census)

Colborne was a census subdivision in Ontario, recorded in the 1881 Census of Canada with a population of 2,663. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q115261141. The administrative centroid was at approximately 43.764°N, 81.640°W.

Population

In 1881, Colborne had a population of 2,663: 1,404 male and 1,259 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, Colborne shared boundaries with:

• Ashfield
• Goderich
• Goderich, Town—Ville
• Hullett
• Wawanosh W-O

Full census record, 1881

The 1881 census recorded 34 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 4 categories.

Population & families (1881). This community's record includes 2,663 total population, 1,404 males, 1,259 females, 817 married persons, 485 families, 410 married males, 407 married females, 72 widowed persons, 49 widowed females, 23 widowed males. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Age structure (1881). This community's record includes 1,774 single persons under 18, 971 single males under 18, 803 single females under 18. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Buildings & housing (1881). This community's record includes 482 occupied houses, 477 inhabited houses, 27 uninhabited houses, 5 dwellings that are temporary shanties, 1 houses under construction. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Agriculture (1881). This community's record includes 93,759 bushels of oats, 86,170 bushels of winter wheat, 65,313 bushels of turnips, 32,165 bushels of potatoes, 28,400 bushels of other root crops, 20,093 bushels of peas and beans, 18,835 bushels of spring wheat, 11,718 bushels of barley, 7,540 acres of wheat, 5,142 tons of hay, 4,164 acres of hay crops, 3,159 bushels of corn, 292 bushels of clover, timothy, or other grass seed, 278 bushels of buckwheat, 253 acres of potatoes, 150 bushels of rye. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V3T24.)

Residents in 1881

The 1881 census residents page for this Census Subdivision lists 2,663 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: ON174003 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
• Persistent place ID: PLACE_ON119002 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
• Wikidata: Q115261141

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). "Colborne, Ontario (1881 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/on/colborne-on174003-1881/.