Village in the Kootenays

Creston and the 1931 census

Patricia and Robert Malcolmson

The individual data from Canada's 1931 census, released on June 1, 2023, open new possibilities for understanding British Columbian society between the two world wars. We can learn about where people came from (most non-Indigenous adults in BC were not born in the province); the sizes and estimated values of their homes; what they did for a living; and whether they were or had recently been unemployed. Local history is certainly enriched by this evidence.1 The following essay draws mainly on this newly opened source to present a social profile of one region in BC's Interior in the early 1930s—the Kootenay village of Creston and the countryside nearby, numbering almost 1,500 named individuals.2 The village of Creston, incorporated in 1924, had a population of some 710 named people living in…

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British Columbia History (Digital) - 1 Issue, 57.1 Spring 2024

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