Study shows family structure is changing across the country

A recent study conducted by the Vanier Institute of Family has shown that people in Canada are “freer than they once were to establish the kinds of family arrangements that best suit them.”

According to the study, which is released approximately every five years, more people are staying in common law marriages rather than getting legally married and are having fewer children than decades ago. For example, in 2008 Canadians gave birth to 360,000 children, a 25 per cent drop from 1959 when Canadians gave birth to 479,000 children. In 1991, 50 per cent of couples with children were legally married, while today that number is only 38 per cent – the same percentage of legal marriages in Canada that end in divorce. Married families without children and common law couples without children, when combined, match the number of those legally married with children.

“Today’s families are smaller. Adults wait longer to marry if they do so at all. Common law unions are no longer just a preliminary or trial stage before marriage but, for many, an alternative to marriage,” said the study. “On average, Canadians wait longer than did their parents or grandparents to have children. They are more likely to separate or divorce. In less than a lifetime, the dual-earner family has gone from an exception to the norm, and a growing number of women are primary income earners within their families,” it said.

In the 1970s, men and women who chose to tie the knot were about 25 and 23, respectively. Today, they’re 30 and 28, five years older on average. Numbers of blended families with step-parents, step-children, same-sex-parents or just families of couples alone are also on the increase.

These changes in family structure and general Canadian lifestyles make it very apparent that there are a number of changes that need to be made – both in law and public programs – that support these ever-changing families through various family law-related challenges.

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By heather - Last updated: Saturday, October 16, 2010
Filed in Common Law Marriage, Current trends, Family structure •