Scarborough, Ontario (1851 census)

Scarborough was a census subdivision in Ontario, recorded in the 1851 Census of Canada with a population of 4,244. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q1025401. The administrative centroid was at approximately 43.778°N, 79.240°W.

Population

In 1851, Scarborough had a population of 4,244: 2,304 male and 1,940 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 1851

In the 1851 census, Scarborough shared boundaries with:

• Markham
• Pickering
• York

Full census record, 1851

The 1851 census recorded 190 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 6 categories.

Population & families (1851). This community's record includes 4,244 total population, 2,304 males, Male members of the family who are present: 2,151, 1,940 females, Female members of the family who are present: 1,869, 1,615 single males, 1,253 single females, 648 married males, 633 families, 631 married females, 321 males attending school, 213 females attending school, Males present who are not members of the family: 153, Females present who are not members of the family: 71, 62 female births, 59 male births, 56 widowed females, 41 widowed males, Female members of the family who are absent: 24, Male members of the family who are present: 11, 2 deaf and dumb females, 1 blind males, 1 deaf and dumb males, 1 lunatic females. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T3.)

Age structure (1851). This community's record includes 349 single males aged 20 to 30, 294 males aged 5 to 10, 287 females aged 5 to 10, 254 single females aged 10 to 15, 253 single males aged 10 to 15, 252 single males aged 15 to 20, 237 single females aged 15 to 20, 220 married females aged 20 to 30, 201 married males aged 30 to 40, 170 married females aged 30 to 40, 162 married males aged 20 to 30, 142 married females aged 40 to 50, 137 married males aged 40 to 50, 108 single females aged 20 to 30, 89 males aged 1 to 2, 89 married males aged 50 to 60, 79 females aged 1 to 2, 79 males aged 4 to 5, 75 males aged 3 to 4, 72 males aged 2 to 3, 71 males under age 1, 68 females aged 4 to 5, 67 females under age 1, 58 females age 3 to 4, 56 females aged 2 to 3, 56 married females aged 50 to 60, 50 single males aged 30 to 40, 47 married males aged 60 to 70, 27 single females aged 30 to 40, 21 married females aged 60 to 70, 21 single males aged 40 to 50, 18 married females aged 15 to 20, 16 widowed females aged 60 to 70, 14 widowed females aged 40 to 50, 12 widowed females aged 50 to 60, 11 widowed males aged 40 to 50, 9 married males aged 70 to 80, 9 widowed males aged 60 to 70, 7 widowed males aged 50 to 60, 6 widowed males aged 30 to 40, 5 single males aged 50 to 60, 4 single females aged 40 to 50, 4 single males aged 60 to 70, 4 widowed females aged 20 to 30, 4 widowed females aged 30 to 40, 4 widowed females aged 70 to 80, 3 married females aged 70 to 80, 3 single females aged 60 to 70, 3 widowed males aged 70 to 80, 2 married males aged 15 to 20, 2 single females aged 50 to 60, 2 single females aged 70 to 80, 2 widowed females aged 80 to 90, 2 widowed males aged 20 to 30, 2 widowed males aged 80 to 90, 1 married females aged 80 to 90, 1 married males aged 80 to 90, 1 single females aged 80 to 90, 1 single males aged 80 to 90, 1 widowed males aged 90 to 100. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T3.)

Ethnic origin (1851). This community's record includes 2,133 persons native to Canada, not of French origin, 756 persons originating in Ireland, 704 persons originating in England or Wales, 533 persons originating in Scotland, 84 persons originating in the United States, 18 persons originating in New Brunswick, 10 persons whose origin is unknown, 4 French Canadians, 2 persons originating in the East Indies. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Agriculture (1851). This community's record includes 67,598 bushels of wheat, 54,870 bushels of oats, 34,233 pounds of homemade butter, 22,205 bushels of peas, 19,710 bushels of potatoes, 19,053 acres of land in farms, 11,451 acres of farmland under cultivation, 8,395 pounds of cheese produced on farms, 7,906 acres of farmland under crops, 7,602 acres of farmland in woodland or forest, 7,038 pounds of wool produced on farms, 4,960 bushels of turnips, 3,370 acres of farmland in pasture, 2,810 acres of wheat, 2,470 pounds of maple sugar, 2,123 tons of hay, 2,058 sheep, 1,605 bushels of carrots, 1,589 swine, 1,376 acres of oats, 1,114 acres of peas, 942 bushels of barley, 854 milk cows, 616 horses, 601 barrels of pork, 527 calves and heifers, 476 barrels of beef, 445 bushels of mangel wurtzel, 430 gallons of cider, 423 occupants of farms, 305 bushels of corn, 255 bulls, oxen, or steers, 233 acres of potatoes, 197 persons living on farms between 50 and 100 acres, 195 bushels of rye, 175 acres of farmland in gardens or orchards, 108 persons living on farms between 20 and 50 acres, 81 bushels of buckwheat, 61 persons living on farms between 100 and 200 acres, 38 persons living on farms under 10 acres, 30 acres of barley, 14 acres of turnips, 12 persons living on farms over 200 acres, 10 acres of rye, 8 acres of corn, 7 persons living on farms between 10 and 20 acres, 3 acres of buckwheat. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V2T6.)

Manufacturing & industry (1851). This community's record includes 5,000 feet of lumber produced daily by saw mills reporting daily production, 2,441 yards of flannel, 542 yards of fulled cloth, 44 employees in saw mills, 28 employees in grist mills, 26 saw mills, 24 saw mills powered by water, 14 saw mills not reporting, 11 saw mills reporting annual production, 10 grist mills, 10 grist mills powered by water, 9 grist mills not reporting, 2 carding and fulling mills, 2 carding and fulling mills not reporting, 2 distilleries, 2 distilleries reporting, 2 employees in tanneries, 2 saw mills powered by steam, 1 breweries, 1 breweries not reporting, 1 grist mills reporting annual production, 1 saw mills reporting daily production, 1 tanneries, 1 tanneries not reporting. 3,110,000 feet of lumber produced per year by saw mills reporting annual production. 20,000 barrels of flour produced per year by grist mills reporting annual production. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V2T6; V2T7.) The 1851 enumerator also recorded 1,800 gallons of liquor produced in distilleries — single-county tallies of limited cross-year comparability.

Deaths & mortality (1851). This community's record includes 41 total number of deaths, Deaths in the past year among females of all ages: 23, Deaths in the past year among males of all ages: 18, Deaths in the past year among males under age 1: 5, Deaths in the past year among females aged 1 to 2: 4, Deaths in the past year among males aged 1 to 2: 4, Deaths in the past year among females aged 2 to 3: 3, Deaths in the past year among females under age 1: 3, Deaths in the past year among males aged 5 to 10: 3, Deaths in the past year among females aged 10 to 15: 2, Deaths in the past year among females aged 30 to 40: 2, Deaths in the past year among females aged 5 to 10: 2, Deaths in the past year among females aged 60 to 70: 2, Deaths in the past year among females aged 70 to 80: 2, Deaths in the past year among females aged 20 to 30: 1, Deaths in the past year among females aged 4 to 5: 1, Deaths in the past year among females aged 50 to 60: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 2 to 3: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 30 to 40: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 4 to 5: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 40 to 50: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 60 to 70: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 70 to 80: 1. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T3.)

People with Dictionary of Canadian Biography entries

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography includes biographies of 4 people connected to this place who were alive in 1851, listed below by birth year. Each name links to that person's DCB entry.

Identifiers

• TCP UID: ON042004 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
• Persistent place ID: PLACE_ON154007 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
• Wikidata: Q1025401
• Wikipedia (EN): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough,_Ontario
• Wikipédia (FR): https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough_(Ontario)

Sources

Census tabulations from the 1851 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). "Scarborough, Ontario (1851 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/on/scarborough-on042004-1851/.