Families with Children Living at Home

Families With and Without Children Living at Home

• Married Couples With and Without Children Living at Home
• Common-law Couple Families With and Without Children Living at Home

The reference to "families" for this series of maps is based on the concept of "census family" as defined by Statistics Canada. Census families include families that are married couples or common-law couples, with or without children living at home, and those families headed by one parent. "Children" are defined as never married sons and/or daughters (including step and adopted children), living with their parents (regardless of age).

The number of families with children, as a proportion of all families in Canada, has remained consistent since 1986. Based on the 1996 Census, there were a total of 7 837 865 families in Canada. Of those families, 66% (5 108 085) were families with children. The remainder of the families (2 729 775) consisted of couples with no children at home. A number of trends in Canadian families with children have been observed:

• Canadians are having fewer children and are waiting longer to have them.
• Lone parent families have increased by 33% between 1986 and 1996.
• Lone parent families make up 22% of all families with children.
• Families headed by women continue to outnumber those headed by men by four to one.
• The increase in lone parent families places more children at risk of growing up in poverty.
• The number of children experiencing the breakdown of their parent's marriage at a younger age is on the increase.
• In 1994, the majority of children under the age of 18 living in two-parent families saw both of their parents working.

For more facts and trends, see the selected highlights of "The Progress of Canada's Children, 1996", released by the Canadian Council on Social Development

Although the proportion of families with children has remained stable over the past decade, the distribution of children among the different types of families has changed over the last 10 years. The proportion of married-couple families with children decreased from 77% in 1986 to 69% in 1996. This period has also seen an increase in both common-law families with children and lone-parent families. The 1996 Census results are illustrated in the figure below.

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Figure 1. Family Structure, as a Proportion of all Families (1996)

Most children in Canada live in "intact" families (74%). An intact family is one in which all children live with their biological or adoptive parents. Results of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) show that eight out of ten children (79%) under the age of twelve years live with both biological parents. Other two-parent families such as step families, accounted for approximately 5% of the children. In a step family, at least one of the children is the biological or adoptive child of only one of the parents. Children in lone-parent families represented over 20% of all children in families. Of these lone parent families, the majority were headed by women. Less than 1% of Canadian children were reported living with a teenage mother.

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Figure 2. Families with Children by Family Structure (1986 to 1996)

The map showing families with children as a proportion of all census families confirms that the highest proportion of families with children at home is in the Northwest Territories (75.7% of all couples). The lowest proportions are found in southwestern British Columbia, the southern Prairie Provinces, southern Ontario, southwestern Quebec and the southern regions of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. These areas indicating fewer families with children may be attributed to an increase of the number of older couples with children who have left home. The patterns in these regions indicate a strong relationship to similar patterns showing the incidence of senior population groups.

Married Couples With and Without Children Living at Home

The majority of children in 1996 were living in a married-couple family. In 1996, 73 out of 100 children were in these families as compared to 78 out of 100 in 1991. As a proportion of married couples, 29% represented families without children. The large percentage of families without children is partially attributed to the increasing number of families with children "leaving the nest". A small proportion of married couples have chosen to remain childless.

The patterns on the map "Families with Children Living at Home, as a Proportion of All Families" indicate a high proportion of families with children throughout the northern census divisions. The Northwest Territories appears to have a significant proportion of these families, as does northern Quebec and Newfoundland. In the case of the larger census divisions, the populations are relatively small compared to the geographic area therefore they appear overemphasized. The regions showing a lesser proportion may be attributed to a higher incidence of older married couples with children who have left the home.

Common-law Couple Families With and Without Children Living at Home

Since 1981, common-law unions have been steadily increasing. This is particularly true in the province of Quebec. In 1981, 8% of Quebec couples lived common-law, compared to 25% in 1996. The rest of Canada has also seen a marked, but lower, increase from 6% in 1981 to 10% in 1996. Between 1991 and 1996 the number of common-law couples with children at home increased by 47%. This rate of increase was three times as high as for common-law couple families without children. As of 1996, there were 434 950 common-law couples with at least one child living at home. This high rate may be partially attributed to the increase of "step families" where children from previous marriages or common-law relationships, are included in the new family (General Social Survey, 1995). Research has demonstrated that most of the children born to unmarried women go home to two biological parents who have chosen to live common-law rather than marry.

The map showing common-law couples with children, indicates a number of regions with higher proportions of these families: Quebec, the Northwest Territories and the Northern Prairie Provinces. In 1996 there were a total of 209 230 such families living in Quebec alone.

According to the 1996 Census results, nearly 40% of all common-law couples were between the ages of 15 and 29. In comparing the distribution of young children 6 years of age and under to the distribution of common-law families with children, the patterns are similar. This is particularly evident for the younger communities in the Northwest Territories. When making map comparisons, keep in mind that each map is generated from a unique data set and the legend classifications are defined to reflect that specific map content.

To properly interpret this map, please consult the text Data and Mapping Notes.

• Family Structure Map | Read about this map
• Marital Status, 1996 Map | Read about this map
• Children Living at Home Map | Read about this map

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