Statistics Canada takes a general census every five years. The latest was Census 2021. Along with other surveys, the resulting data sheds light on trends in Canada’s family well-being. Canada’s total population in Census 2021 was 36.99 million, up from 35.15 million in 2016 and 33.47 million in 2011.
Explanation of the Census
The “Census Family” is not identical to the concept most Canadians have of “family”.
Statistics Canada has chosen to measure the “Canadian Census Family” in conformity with the United Nations Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses. A family nucleus therefore, is one of the following types (each of which must consist of persons living in the same household):
- a married couple without children,
- a married couple with one or more unmarried children,
- a father with one or more unmarried children or
- a mother with one or more unmarried children
- Couples living in consensual unions are regarded as married couples
- Grandchildren living with their grandparent(s) but with no parents, also constitutes a “census family”.
Statistics Canada has been ordered by the Liberal government to go full woke and include minority sexual identities in its data, an infinitesimal percentage, which does not affect the overall statistical portrait of the Canadian family. 99.81% of Canadians reported being male or female, 0.13% reported as neither (non-binary).
Canada, therefore, is the first country to provide census data on transgender (identifies as opposite sex) and non-binary (identifies as neither male nor female). Simply put, the census is no longer based on actual biological realities but on the identity one chooses to report on census questionnaires. For Statistics Canada, that identity is fluid: “The language related to LGBTQ2+ communities is rapidly evolving and terminology may shift over time, vary by context, and mean different things to different people.” According to a 2021 statistical report, the official government acronym is LGBTQ2+. Prime Minister Trudeau, however, has recently chosen a new version: 2SLGBTQI+
According to this world view, from year to year, the same person could change identity, choosing from different sexual identities included in StatCan’s portrait of diverse LGBTQ+ : lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, pansexual, trans, non-binary, genderqueer, gender fluid, pangender, agender.
In spite of this absurdity, much can be learned from Census 2021 about the family in Canada.
Families Have Halted Their Decline
Much Census 2021 data is encouraging as the steady decline in traditional family numbers has halted.
A levelling off can be observed in marital status decreases. The 1981-1986 five year period saw a 3.4% decrease in married respondents, but 2016-2021 registered a much lower 0.3% decrease.
Percentage increases in common-law couples from one census to another has levelled off. That is, the increase from Census 1981-1986, was 28%, from 2001-2006, it was 12%, and from 2016-2021, the census reported an increase of only 6%.
Lone-Parent Families
Lone-parent family increases have also levelled off. Lone-parent families as a percentage of census families have increased every year, from 11.3% in 1981 to 16.4% in 2021. But these increases have steadily diminished in size from a 1.4 percentage point (pp) increase from Census 1981-1986 to 0.2 pp increase from 2001-2006, to no increase from Census 2016-2021 at 0.0 pp.
Because of the move toward equal parenting in separated families, over the last ten years there has been a 26% shift in favour of fathers. Census 2021 recorded 1.3 million families headed by a mother and 383,000 headed by a father, for a ratio of 3.4 to 1. Ten years ago, in Census 2011, the ratio was 4.6 mothers to 1 father.
Living Alone
For a variety of reasons, 4.4 million people lived alone in 2021, representing 29.3% of households. Canada registers at the low end of western countries in this regard, along with the United Kingdom at 29.5% and the United States at 28.5%. Among countries with high counts of lone households were Finland at 45.3%, Germany at 40.8%, Sweden at 40.7%, and Austria at 38.0%. This does not mean necessarily that familial connections have ended. Also, many of the lone family arrangements may be short term.
Matrimonial Status
Canada’s census previously counted common-law couples as a separate category. Census 2021, however, reported combined married and common-law couples at 57%. Of these couples, 78% were married and 22% were common-law, for a ratio of 3.5 to 1.
Nationally, 23% of couples are common law couples. There are elevated percentages of common-law couples in some regions, with Nunavut at 52% and Quebec at 43% with one town registering 68%. One predominantly Christian community in western Canada registered 98% of couples as married.
If we excluded Quebec, Canada’s common-law average would be 17%, not 23%. Therefore, StatCan’s announcement that “Canada leads the G7 with almost one-quarter of couples living common-law” is true but misleading. In western countries, common-law averages range from highs in Sweden 33% and Norway 28% to lows in Germany 16%, the United States 12%, and Italy 10%.
Of the 8.6 million couples in Canada, 98.5% were male-female. Same-sex couples, either two men or two women, totalled 1.1% of couples, or 0.6% of the “15 years and over” population. The new StatCan category of combined transgender and non-binary identity amounted to 0.37% of couples, which include at least one transgender or non-binary person, or 0.2% of the “over 15 years and over” population.
There were 10.2 million Census families (as defined above) in private households, 8.5 million or 84% of which were a couple family. 16% fell into various other types of “census families.”
Children
Of the total 10.6 million children (17 and under) in “census families”, 8 million were living with two parents (75.4%) and 2.6 million were living with one parent (24.6%), a 3:1 ratio.
Census 2011, 2016, and 2021 indicated that approximately 70% of children, aged 0 to 14, lived with two biological or adoptive parents, which is the most stable arrangement for children.
Census 2021 reports that 53% of married couples had children at home, compared to 42% of common-law couples and 12% of same-sex couples (usually generated from previous male/female unions). Statistics Canada also found that “among couples, same-gender couples with two men are the least likely to have children or be married.”
Among couples with children, common-law couples were 4.6 times more likely to be step-parents (33%) than married couples (7%).
The proportion of young adults (ages 20-34) living with at least one parent increased in several urban centres, ranging from 19% to 46% in central and eastern Canada, and 2.2% to 6.9% in western Canada, with the exception of Lethbridge at 21%. The number of individuals in their 20s and 30s living with roommates increased by 15% since Census 2016. This is understandable with the increased cost of living and delayed marriages.
Conclusion
The steady erosion of marriage and family seems to have stopped. In a separate 2021-2022 survey on Hopefulness measures, Statistics Canada noted that “…a hopeful outlook is positively associated with key well-being indicators, such as life satisfaction, sense of meaning and purpose, and mental and general health….” From survey responses, statisticians concluded “having children and strong ties to a local community were associated with a more hopeful outlook.” Since family well-being brings improved mental and general health, more pro-family policies would lessen the unsustainable health and social services tax burden, and Canada’s culture could return to significant progress toward stability and productivity. Legislators who claim that marriage and family are purely private matters and, therefore, not a matter of public policy are ignoring the facts.
Calculations were made from Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population, updated August 30, 2022, various Statistics Canada Census 2021 publications and Cardus marriagemap.ca