• 1852 Oversampling Strategy

1852 Missing Data

The 1852 Census of Upper and Lower Canada:
Proposed Oversampling Strategy, and Discussion

Missing Data

As historians have previously discovered, large portions of the 1852 manuscript census of Upper and Lower Canada are missing. An exhaustive index prepared by the National Archives of Canada as well as the 1852 Census Project at the Dépt. de Démographie, Université de Montréal, indicates that 348 sub-districts and divisions are entirely missing out of the 1274 sub-districts and divisions listed in Upper and Lower Canada in 1852. According to the aggregate census volumes for 1852 Canada, these 348 sub-districts and divisions contain 498, 844 persons. The aggregate statistics list a total population of 1,828,482 persons in Upper and Lower Canada. Thus, at the individual level, 27% of persons in the 1852 census are missing from the manuscript record, and only 73%, or 1,329,638 persons, are available for data transcription.