Census Canada hasn’t forgotten common law opposite sex couples in their counting. These numbers were counted also. Interestingly enough, also for the first time in Canada ever, the census figures reflect the fact that those those who are married are losing ground. In fact, common law relationships are showing 5 times the growth rate that marriages are.

The rise of the “unmarrieds” - who now make up 51.5 per cent of Canada’s adult population - is the result of “greater social acceptance of common-law unions,” increasing numbers of divorced men and women who haven’t remarried, and “more young adults living in the parental home” who put off or never make a matrimonial trip to the altar or city hall, says Statistics Canada.

Besides examining the new legal institution of same-sex marriage, the 2006 census found that Canada has 8.9 million families and households, with married couples the largest — but shrinking — group.

The country is seeing an increase in the percentage of common-law couples, small households and lone-parent families headed by men. For the first time since Statistics Canada began keeping track, there are more families comprised of couples without children (42.7 per cent) than with children (41.4 per cent). This is influenced by the aging of the population and more couples having grown children who have already left home, as well as lower fertility rates in younger generations.

Also for the first time in 2006, there were fewer legally married people aged 15 and older in Canada than unmarried people — be they divorced, separated, widowed or never-wed. About eight per cent of the Canadian population aged 15 and older said they are divorced and 35 per cent had never legally married. This is in line with other jurisdictions, illustrated by a much-publicized New York Times story earlier this year reporting that more American women are now living without a husband than with one.

@Root
No. They count those who are co-habitating. The principal driver behind the rising number of unmarried Canadians is the soaring popularity of common-law partnerships. Living common law in Canada was once associated largely with young people bucking religious tradition. Now it become so commonplace that, according to the latest census, the biggest increase in such relationships was registered among Canadians between the ages of 60 and 64. The number of Canadians in that age group who are living in a common-law arrangement has shot up 77 per cent since 2001.