Historical Statistics of Canada

Toby Rupert was a librarian living in Toronto.

The foreword claims that this book contains “a wide range of economic, social and political data, and a considerable amount of material descriptive of the data for the period from Confederation to the mid-1970s.” The first edition, published by Macmillan in 1965, went up to 1960 or so. This second edition then provides updated and revised statistics through to 1975, or even to 1977 in some cases. There is enough material, descriptive scope-notes, and explanatory notes presented that the cursory researcher should not have to go back to the original basic source (all tables are keyed to their sources). Unfortunately, a few series from the first edition were not brought forward into the second edition because Statistics Canada had no new information on these tables; the data had ceased to be collected by 1960. Thus, in some cases, the first edition must be consulted. Many libraries may still have this work, but it is no longer available for sale by the publisher. This second edition has 22 categories, including population, vital statistics, social security, labour force, wages, the GNP, balance of trade, government finance, banking, price indexes, primary and secondary industries (forestry, agriculture, fisheries, mining, energy, manufacturing, construction, transportation, communication), education, politics and justice. All have copious explanatory notes.