Canada Census Office (British Columbia) Guides

The BC Archives holds microfilm copies of the federal census returns for British Columbia for 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911. The census, unlike other research sources identifying individuals such as city/business directories and voters lists, intended to capture information about every individual.  Although attempts were made to include returns for the Native and Chinese population, this was not a systematic enumeration until 1901 when the Native population was, for the first time, enumerated by an “Indian Agency”.