cover image: Issue Brief: Family Change and Diversity in Canada

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Issue Brief: Family Change and Diversity in Canada

25 Jun 2024

documented decline in the proportion of couples in Canada who are married.7 This trend reflects the Common-law marriage refers to couples growing number of people choosing to remain single who have lived together in a marriage-like or to form cohabiting partnerships8–10 rather than to relationship for a set number of years or have a child in common. [...] There has been a sharp rise in the children, the large majority (79%) are comprised proportion of children born to unmarried mothers, of two women.8 Nonetheless, gay men with children from 18% in 1990 to 32% in 2017 (authors’ under the age 12 living in the household are more calculations of children aged 0 to 17 in the 1990 likely than heterosexual men with children to be and 2017 GSS). [...] where over half (52%) of couples are in cohabiting In 2022, 29% of the population in Canada aged 15 and unions.9 Research on cohabitation—or union status, older were actively engaged in unpaid childcare.33 For more generally—in the territories is limited, partly children, families are primarily responsible for their because important family surveys in Canada, such as physical and mental health as. [...] Policies that support diverse family to ensure that policies are tailored to meet the needs forms can play an important role in promoting the of new and emerging family forms and that all wellbeing of all family members both within and families are equally likely to use and benefit from outside of traditional two-parent married households. [...] Positioned at the centre of networks of researchers, educators, policymakers, and organizations with an interest in families, we share evidence and strengthen the understanding of families in Canada, in all their diversities, to support evidence-based decisions that promote family wellbeing.

Authors

The Vanier Institute of the Family

Pages
11
Published in
Canada

Table of Contents