Abstract

Family structure refers to the, “classification of census families into families of now-married couples and common-law couples (with or without children) and lone-parent families”. Married couple families still constitute the large majority of families. The highest proportion of married couple families was in Newfoundland at 78% of all families and Quebec had the lowest proportion among the provinces at 64%. Since 1981, common-law unions have been steadily increasing. The number of lone parents increased 33% between 1986 and 1996. In 1996 there were approximately 1 138 000 lone-parent families, and families headed by women continue to outnumber those headed by men by four to one, or 83% of all lone-parent families.