50Plus : Lifestyle : The changing landscape of Canadian families

New census data reveals the changing make up of Canadian households -- and baby boomers and seniors are playing a big part.

?Traditional family? ? what?s that, you ask? At the peak of the baby boom, households with two parents and two kids were the norm. Fast-forward five decades and the statistics show there is more diversity in families and living arrangements than ever before.

Today, Statistics Canada released the latest set of information from the 2011 census focussing on families and the living arrangements of Canadians. Need evidence that the information is more complex than in the past? Consider the number of definitions of ?families? and ?households? we?ve accumulated over the years, including same-sex couples and common-law families.

A lot has changed in the past five, 10 and 50 years ? including societal expectations and norms and the make-up of the population. As the baby boomers age, they continue to play a big part in new trends.

Here?s a look at some of the findings:

?Non-traditional? households on the rise

There?s no such thing as a ?typical family?. A lot has changed in recent years, such as:

- Families are smaller. In 1961, the average family size was four people ? now it?s down to three. Part of it could be families having fewer children, but the wake of the baby boom is still being felt.

- For the first time ever, there are more people living alone than couples with children. Just over 27 per cent of households are one-person ? triple the proportion from 1961. Why? People are getting married later, divorce rates are higher and people are living longer (and often outliving their spouse).

- Stepfamilies are on the rise. Statistics Canada reports that 1 in 10 children now live in a stepfamily household.

- 44.5 per cent of families now have no children at home. The baby boomers are all grown up and moved out of their parents homes ? and many are enjoying empty nests themselves.

- More people are choosing not to tie the knot. In 1981 ? the first year when common-law families were counted ? such unions made up 5.6 per cent of ?census families? (households with more than one person who are considered a family unit). Now they account for nearly 17 per cent and outnumber lone-parent parents for the first time.

This trend doesn?t surprise us either ? recent research shows that many people over age 50 are choosing to live together rather than marry.

- Though the increase in multiple-family households wasn?t huge ? 1.8 per cent in 2001 to 2.0 percent in 2011 ? experts note that immigration, the cost and availability of housing and other issues could be factors in more generations living together. For instance, multiple-family households are most common near Toronto and in Abbotsford and Surrey, British Columbia.

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Source: http://www.50plus.com/lifestyle/census-changing-family-trends/187865/

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