Notes: % Catholics = Catholics as a percentage of the total population.

The overwintering population enumerated in governors' annual returns includes temporary migrants, such as dieters and workers contracted for two summers and a winter. Some temporary migrants may have ultimately remained in Newfoundland, but many returned to their home countries, especially up to the early years of the nineteenth century. Thus the overwintering population is used here as an extremely rough measure of residency only and is by no means an absolute indicator of permanent settlement. By the 1836 census report, however, the vast majority of inhabitants on the island were permanent residents.

Data for 1755 are not available; data for 1754 are used instead. Estimates of Catholics in the population for 1765 and 1795 are not reliable and therefore not included in this figure.

Sources: CO 194 Series, Governors' Annual Returns of the Fisheries and Inhabitants at Newfoundland, 1735-1825; Newfoundland Population Returns, 1836, 1845, and 1857.