The last ten years showed the smallest proportional increase in the Jewish population in the history of Canada, according to a study of the official statements by the Canadian Jewish Congress made public here today. The Jewish population of Canada actually declined from 1,5% of the total population in 1931 to 1,47% in 1941.
The proportion of the Jewish to the total population of all origins decreased in the decade from 1931 to 1941 in four out of the nine Canadian provinces and barely held its own in two of the remaining five provinces, while the Jewish population actually decreased numerically during the same period in three of the nine provinces, the survey shows. The statistical study was prepared for the Bureau of Social and Economic Research of the Canadian Jewish Congress by the noted economist and statistician, Louis Rosenberg, based upon the official figures of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics compiled in 1941.
Preliminary figures of the total Jewish population of Canada in 1941 show it to be 170,120 as compared with 156,726 in 1931. The Jewish population increased 8,54% during the decade since 1931, while the total population of all origins increased by 10,88% during the same period.
The Jewish population increased from 62,383 in 1931 to 69,875 in 1941 in Ontario; from 60,187 in 1931 to 66,277 in 1941 in Quebec; from 2,747 to 3,350 in British Columbia; from 2,046 to 2,285 in Nova Scotia; from 3,722 to 4,052 in Alberta, and from 20 to 25 in Prince Edward Island. On the other hand the Jewish population decreased from 1,262 in 1931 to 1,228 in 1941 in New Brunswick; from 19,341 to 18,879 Manitoba; and from 4,291 to 4,149 in Saskatchewan.
In the province of Quebec the proportion of the Jewish to the total population decreased from 2,09% in 1931 to 1,99% in 1941, while in Ontario it increased slightly from 1,81% in 1931 to 1,84% in 1941. Manitoba is the only province in Canada in which Jews form more than two percent of the total population. In the provinces of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia Jews form less than one percent of the total population.
In 1931 the Jewish population of the four western provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia formed 19.73% of the total Jewish population of Canada, while in 1941 the proportion of the Jewish population of Canada living in the four western provinces was only 17.89%. During the same period the proportion of the total population of Canada of all origins living in western Canada fell from 29.60% in 1931 to 28.29% in 1941.
Of the total Jewish population of Canada in 1941, males of all ages numbered 85,843 while females of all ages numbered 84,277. There was a larger proportion of males to females among the total population of all origins in Canada in 1941 than among the Jewish population.
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