20 March 2023
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The 1931 Canada census will become available to the public on 1 June 2023, Library and Archives Canada has announced.
After the legislated 92 years in the vault, the 1931 Census of Canada will be made available to the public this June. Collected during the Great Depression and at a time of significant immigration, the census provides a snapshot of the more than 10 million people living in Canada in 1931.
On 1 June 1 2023, family historians will be able to browse the digitised census images by geographic districts and sub-districts on the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) website. Following the initial release, LAC will work collaboratively with Ancestry® and FamilySearch International to create an advanced searchable database for Canadians, and those with Canadian heritage who wish to look for their ancestors.
Exploring the 1931 Canada census
In this collaborative effort to increase access to the 1931 Census of Canada, LAC has digitised all 234,687 pages of the census and Ancestry will apply its handwriting recognition technology to the digital images to create a full index of the entire census. FamilySearch will then review the computer-generated index to ensure a complete and accurate index of all fields at a level ‘never achieved before’. The images and indexes will be available and searchable online for free through Census Search, Library and Archives Canada’s new site for national census records. The images and indexes will also be available on Ancestry.ca and FamilySearch.org.
1931 census of Canada facts
- The 1931 Census of Canada is 234,687 pages in length and includes 10,376,786 people.
- More than 40 fields of personal information were recorded in the 1931 Census of Canada. These include typical questions found on previous census returns, such as family names and relationships, age, gender, and racial origin. There were also five new questions, touching on matters like unemployment and radio ownership.
- The 1931 Census of Canada was the seventh comprehensive 10-year census following Canada’s Confederation on July 1, 1867
(Image copyright Tuck DB Postcards)