Did Religion Matter? Religion and Wealth in Urban Canada at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This study draws on a 5-per-cent national sample of the nominal level census returns for Canada in 1901, constructed by the Canadian Families Project, to examine to what extent religion determined one’s economic status in early-twentieth-century urban Canada. While ethno-religion was an important factor in accounting for differences in people’s wealth and status, other factors such as age, city size, and income cannot be ignored. Moreover, while differences in attainment of wealth and status did exist between people of different religious denominations, there appears to be a lack of significant difference between Irish Catholics and the members of the various Protestant denominations. This latter finding provides historians with a potentially fresh perspective on social and political developments in turn-of-thecentury Ontario and perhaps in other parts of the country.