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Printed from The Vanier Institute of the Family's website at www.vifamily.ca. © 2008.
Family Facts 1) Families [pdf version] 2) Marital Status (Marriage, Common-Law & Divorce) [pdf version] 3) Children [pdf version] 4) Income, Earnings and Labour Force Participation [pdf version] 5) Household Expenditures [pdf version]
There are 8.9 million families1 in Canada
1 Refers to the classification of census families into married couples (with or without children of either or both spouses), common-law couples (with or without children of either or both partners), and lone-parent families by sex of parent. A couple may be of opposite or same sex. 'Children' in a census family include grandchildren living with their grandparent(s) but with no parents present. 2 Children refers to never-married children of all ages. Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census. Catalogue Number 97-553-XCB2006007 How many families have children living at home? 62% of all families have children living at home. Only 10% of all families have three or more children living at home.
Statistics Canada, 2006 Census. Catalogue Number 97-553-XCB2006007 How big are Canadian families?
1 For lone-parent families, refers to 4 or more persons. Most families consist of 2 or 3 persons. Among common-law famlies and lone-parent families, the majority are comprised of just 2 people. Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census. Catalogue Number 97-553-XCB2006007 How big are female and male lone-parent families? Female lone-parent families make up 80% of all lone-parent families, while male lone-parent families make up the remaining 20%. 60% of female lone-parent families and 67% of male lone-parent families are comprised of just 2 persons.
Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census. Catalogue Number 97-553-XCB2006007 82% of all couple families are married, while 18% are common-law. The more children there are living at home, the more likely it is that the couple will be married.
Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census. Catalogue Number 97-553-XCB2006007 How many people over 15 years of age are married?
Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census. Catalogue Number 97-553-XCB2006007 How many people over 15 years of age are living common-law?
Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Population, Catalogue Number 97-552-XCB2006007 How Many Same-Sex Couple Families are Married or Living Common-Law? In Canada, there are 45, 350 same-sex couples. 17% of same-sex couples are legally married, while the remaining 83% are living common-law.
Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Population, Catalogue Number 97-553-XWE2006002 What is the Average Age at which Women Marry for the First Time? The average age of women marrying for the first time is 28.5 years (2003). In Quebec, the average age of women at first marriage is 30.4 years, the highest among the provinces. The average age at first marriage is lowest in Saskatchewan (27.0 years of age) (Statistics pertaining to the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut are not included in this analysis). Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily, Wednesday, January 17th, 2007. What is the Average Age at which Men Marry for the First Time? The average age of men at first marriage is 30.6 years of age (2003). In Quebec, the average age of men at first marriage is 31.9 years, the highest among the provinces. The average age at first marriage is lowest in Saskatchewan (29.3 years of age) (Statistics pertaining to the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut are not included in this analysis). Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily, Wednesday, January 17th, 2007. How Many Marriages will End in Divorce? Of those couples who married in 2004, 37.9% of marriages are expected to end in divorce before the 30th year of marriage. Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM Table 101-6511. How Many Children do People Usually Have? Current trends suggest that, on average, women in Canada will have 1.59 children over the course of their lives. This is known as the fertility rate. Other industrialized countries have a slightly higher fertility rate; United Kingdom at 1.76(2004) and the United States at 2.05 (2004).
Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM Table 102-4505
Source: OECD (2006), Society at a Glance, OECD, Paris What is the Average Age of First-Time Mothers? In 2003, the average age of first-time mothers was 28.0 years. On average, first-time mothers in British Columbia are older than those in Nunavut (28.8 compared with 21.7 years).
Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily, July 12th, 2005 How Many Children are Adopted? In 2006, Canadians adopted 1,535 children from abroad. There has been a steady decrease in the number of international adoptions since 2003.
Source: Adoption Council of Canada Each year in Canada, there are about 1,700 public adoptions (public agency matches a child with you; long waits; no fees) and 1,000 private adoptions (you find a child or a birthmother chooses you with the help of a private agency; hard to find healthy newborns; can be very costly) that take place. There are also about 66,000 children in foster care and about 22,000 of those children are considered permanent wards (a.k.a. Crown wards in which the rights of the parents have been terminated by the courts). Source: Family Helper (Adoption and Fertility, www.familyhelper.net)
What Types of Families do Children Live In? 8 out of 10 children under 20 years of age live in a couple family (married or common-law).
Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Population, Catalogue Number 97-553-XCB2006011 In 2006, 60% of young adults aged 20-24 lived in the parental home, compared to 50% in 1986. Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily, September 12th, 2007
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