I've got a researcher looking for land area for CDs and CSDs in Ontario or the 1961 and 1966 census. I've been looking through our hardcopy holdings and archive.org, and am not finding anything yet.
Does anyone have suggestions for where to find these? Alternatively, are there boundary files available anywhere?
Answer
Here is the response from subject matter:
We have no boundary files for the 1961 nor the 1966 Censuses. As for land area, I did find some information in our old hardcopy publications, for 1961, at least. This publication (hard cover, red with gold lettering): Census of Canada — 1961 — 1.1 (Vol. 1) Population — Geographical Distributions has two tables that may be useful:
Table 2: Area and density of population for counties and census divisions, 1961
Table 3: Area and density of population for incorporated cities, towns and villages of 2,500 and over, 1961.
They contain a column measuring land area in square miles. If you don’t have that publication, we can scan the tables for you. Please note that the land area was calculated expressly for the purpose of calculating population density only. Also, at that time, the calculation was very complex. People should use these numbers with caution. The mindset we have today of quantifying and measuring everything did not exist then.
For 1966, all I could find were two publications similar to today’s interim lists:
Changes in Municipal Boundaries — Annual Report, December 1968, No. 6
Changes in Municipal Boundaries — Annual Report, December 1969, No. 7.
So, these documents give changes following the 1966 Census that occurred before the 1971 Census. I’m not sure that timeline is what you’re looking for. However, within each are these tables:
Table 1: Municipalities newly created, by province, November 1968 — October 1969
Which includes an Area in square miles value, although not for every municipality listed. There is also:
Table 3: Amalgamations and annexations of municipalities, by province, November 1968 — October 1969
Which includes an Area in square miles, but it measures only the annexed area, not the total area.
I went back and found similar interim lists between 1961 and 1966, but those had no land area information at all.
