Population History of Cities and Towns in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand

Canada, Australia, and New Zealand developed from British colonial outposts into nations at about the same time and experienced many of the same social and economic forces. The growth and development of their cities and towns was documented by colonial and national census at the same time. This compilation shows the development of their cities and towns in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand via their population at the various census. To construct this compilation the records of Statistics Canada, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and Statistics New Zealand and their predecessor organizations were examined back to the first simultaneous census conducted in 1861. To help identify those communities that had an urban core of non-rural services descriptive gazetteers and detailed topographic maps were consulted resulting in a list of 4100 communities in Canada, 2900 communities in Australia, and 750 communities in New Zealand for which population figures are given from each census from 1861 through 1996. This data was published in a variety of reports over the years that occasionally included comparisons with one or more previous censuses but never over this long a time period nor ever including as many as places.