The composition of Canadian households continues to change, with alternatives to family households – such as cohabitation – and common-law marriages seeing significant increases, Statistics Canada said in its latest release of census data.
“In recent decades, there has been a gradual decline in the proportion of single-family households with no additional people,” the media release said. “Alternatives such as living alone, with roommates or with extended family are becoming more popular.”
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Households made up of unrelated roommates still make up just four per cent of households – but they also make up the fastest-growing category of households in Canada.
The 663,835 roommate households reported in the new census represent a 54% increase between 2001 and 2021 and a 14% increase since 2016. Statistics Canada said the challenges of finding and paying for housing contributed to this change in household composition.
The number of multi-generational or multi-family homes has grown by 45 per cent since 2001 and now accounts for seven per cent of all households in Canada.
After an upward trend over the past 20 years, the number of young adults ages 20 to 34 living with at least one parent remained steady in 2021 at 35 percent, the same level as in 2016.
While the number of young adults living with parents is highest in major urban centers like Oshawa, Toronto, Windsor and Hamilton — where almost half of 20- to 34-year-olds live with at least one parent — their share of urban households is indeed declining lightly.
The number of 20- to 34-year-olds living with at least one parent declined by three per cent in Vancouver and by one per cent in Montreal and Toronto. Statistics Canada said the change may have been caused by young people moving to smaller communities during the pandemic.
The number of single-person households is increasing
Continuing the established trend, Statistics Canada said the number of Canadians living alone will reach a record 4.4 million in 2021, up from 1.7 million in 1981.
In 1941, only six percent of Canadians lived alone. By 2016, single-person households had become the dominant household type, accounting for 28 percent of the total. The number of single-person households increases again in 2021 to 29 percent.
Couples with children make up 25.3 percent of households, while couples without children make up 25.6 percent of households. Single-parent families make up 8.7 percent of households.
While the number of Canadians living alone is now at a record high, Canada has a relatively small number of one-person households compared to other wealthy nations. All other G7 countries except the US have more single-person households than Canada.
Statistics Canada said the growth in single-person households will weigh on the housing market over time. Almost six in ten one-person households are in apartments, while 61 percent of households with two or more people live in detached houses.
The Changing Face of Couples
The number of Canadians who are part of a couple has remained largely unchanged over the past 100 years; 57 percent of Canadians said they were a couple in 2021, up from 58 percent in 1921. But the nature of those relationships has changed.
Canada now has the highest percentage of common-law citizens in the G7 – 23 percent – while 77 percent of Canadian couples report being married. The proportion of married couples is 21% in the UK, 18% in France, 12% in the US and just 10% in Italy.
The number of married couples in Canada increased by 447 percent between 1981 and 2021, while the number of married couples increased by only 26 percent during the same period.
Common law life has become the norm for adults aged 20 to 24; 79 percent of people in this age group report being part of a married couple. The trend is also increasing among older Canadians, with 16 per cent of Canadians aged 55 to 69 living outside of family law in 2021, compared to just 13 per cent in 2016.
Statistics Canada says this trend is driven largely by the province of Quebec, where 43 per cent of couples live outside of family law. Remove Quebec from the equation, and the percentage of Canadian couples living under common law will drop to 17 percent in 2021.
Gender diversity
Statistics Canada collected data on gender diversity for the first time in the 2021 census. It found that 98.5% of Canada’s 8.6 million couples were made up of one man and one woman who both identified with your gender at birth.
Another 1.1% identified as same-sex couples – two men or two women. Transgender or nonbinary couples in which at least one member was transgender or nonbinary represented the final 0.4% of couples.
The census found that almost 80 percent of same-sex couples with children are made up of two women.
“In 74 percent of stepfamilies made up of same-sex, transgender, or non-binary couples, all children in the family were biological or adopted children of only one spouse or partner in the couple,” it said.
A look at the Canadian Forces
Statistics Canada also took its first look at the Canadian military in 50 years and asked whether Canadians were active duty members serving in the regular or main reserve forces.
The census found that as of spring 2021, there are 97,625 Canadians in the Canadian Armed Forces and another 461,240 are considered veterans.
Of those veterans, 32 percent were still young enough to fit into the prime working age group of Canadians aged 25 to 54, while 41.8 percent of veterans were over the age of 65.
The census found that only one in five active duty members are women – 19.3 per cent, compared to the 47.3 per cent of women who make up Canada’s non-military workforce. Canada is still among the five countries with the highest percentage of women serving in the military (the others are Hungary, Greece, the United States and Bulgaria).
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