Scarborough, Ontario (1891 census)

Scarborough was a census subdivision in Ontario, recorded in the 1891 Census of Canada with a population of 4,028. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q1025401. The administrative centroid was at approximately 43.778°N, 79.240°W.

Population

In 1891, Scarborough had a population of 4,028: 2,072 male and 1,956 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 1891

In the 1891 census, Scarborough shared boundaries with:

• Markham
• Pickering
• York E

Full census record, 1891

The 1891 census recorded 88 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 5 categories.

Population & families (1891). This community's record includes 4,028 total population, 2,072 males, 1,956 females, 1,310 married persons, 812 families, 655 married females, 655 married males, 190 widowed persons, 124 widowed females, 66 widowed males, 4.90 average size of families. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V1T2; V1T3.)

Age structure (1891). This community's record includes 2,528 single persons under 18, 1,351 single males under 18, 1,177 single females under 18. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V1T3.)

Ethnic origin (1891). This community's record includes 4,021 persons who are not French Canadian, 7 French Canadians. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V1T3.)

Buildings & housing (1891). This community's record includes 808 houses, 808 occupied houses, 594 houses built of wood, 541 houses of 2 stories, 435 houses of 6 to 10 rooms, 263 houses of 1 story, 176 houses built of brick, 110 houses of 5 rooms, 89 houses of 4 rooms, 70 houses of 3 rooms, 63 houses of 11 to 15 rooms, 55 uninhabited houses, 38 houses built of stone, 33 houses of 2 rooms, 7 houses under construction, 5 houses of 1 room, 4 houses of 3 stories, 3 houses of over 15 rooms. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V1T2.)

Agriculture (1891). This community's record includes 568,960 bushels of turnips, 170,030 bushels of oats, 164,665 pounds of homemade butter, 137,862 bushels of barley, 75,717 bushels of potatoes, 48,412 bushels of peas, 42,755 acres of land in farms, 39,190 acres of improved land in farms, 31,994 acres of farmland under crops, 31,278 bushels of spring wheat, 19,131 bushels of winter wheat, 19,040 chickens, 14,087 tons of hay, 7,969 acres of hay crops, 5,851 acres of farmland in pasture, 5,663 acres of barley, 5,496 acres of oats, 4,474 pounds of coarse wool produced on farms, 4,033 swine slaughtered or sold, 3,565 acres of farmland in woodland or forest, 3,275 swine, 3,028 acres of wheat, 2,545 pounds of fine wool produced on farms, 2,192 bushels of rye, 1,819 bushels of corn, 1,733 horses aged over 3 years, 1,558 sheep slaughtered or sold, 1,533 sheep, 1,421 acres of turnips, 1,371 other cattle, 1,349 milk cows, 1,345 acres of farmland in gardens or orchards, 1,306 cattle killed or sold, 1,136 acres of potatoes, 724 occupants of farms, 700 horses aged 3 years and under, 500 pounds of cheese produced on farms, 475 ducks, 474 turkeys, 432 geese, 421 farm occupants who own their land, 390 bushels of buckwheat, 327 bushels of clover, timothy, or other grass seed, 292 persons living on farms under 10 acres, 291 farm occupants who rent their land, 214 persons living on farms between 51 and 100 acres, 113 persons living on farms between 101 and 200 acres, 93 persons living on farms between 11 and 50 acres, 69 bushels of beans, 55 other fowl, Capacity of silos (tons): 50, 12 employees on farms, 12 persons living on farms over 200 acres, 7 oxen. (Source: 1891 Census of Canada, V2T16; V4T2; V4T3.)

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 1891, listed below by birth year. Each name links to that person's DCB entry.

Identifiers

• TCP UID: ON131004 — 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 1891 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 (1891 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/on/scarborough-on131004-1891/.