It is important to recognize that the North End was a working-class residential area in the first instance. Workers were attracted by the cheap housing and its location close to one of the major employers of skilled and unskilled labour, the Canadian Pacific Railway. The North End became identified as the foreign quarter as non-Anglo-Saxons became an increasing percentage of the labour force. Table 1 shows that the population of the area became increasingly ethnic between 1901 and 1916. It also indicates, however, that the British remained, even at a peak period of growth in the North End, a substantial element of the population. Table 2 shows that most non-Anglo-Saxons who came to Winnipeg gravitated to the North End. The example of the Germans is interesting. It reveals how group residence patterns indicate differential assimilation rates and occupational change. The North End, then, can be most accurately described as a working class residential area composed of a series of ethnic neighbourhoods.
