4 DECLINE AND FALL Trends in family formation and fertility in Canada since 2001 The nature and impact of broader social and cultural trends is hard to measure, but it is clear that there has been a marked reduction in the mental health of young adults, and a corresponding rise in anxiety about the future. [...] We use income data to understand the economic advantages of being in a family, and then look at the literature on happiness and well-being to understand the benefits for mental and physical health of being in a couple or in an intact family. [...] 16 DECLINE AND FALL Trends in family formation and fertility in Canada since 2001 The decline in the proportion of adults in couples was not driven by a higher proportion of divorced or widowed people: while there was a slight increase in the number of divorced adults, this was offset by a slight decline in the proportion of widowed adults. [...] This raises the question of which factor is more important for explaining the overall decline in fertility rates: is it the decline in the number of married women, or is it the decline in the number of children per married women? In order to gauge the relative importance of these factors we decomposed the change in the fertility rate using a technique called shift-share analysis.1 Looking at the o. [...] Tim Sargent | May 2024 43 Next steps The literature on the benefits of being in a family is reasonably conclusive; although most of it pertains to other countries, particularly the US, there is little reason to believe that the results do not reflect the reality in Canada, especially given our analysis of the income data for Canada.
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- Canada
