Marriage, divorce data

Question

I helped a grad student in Law find data she needed for a paper she was
writing on divorce and custody cases. She submitted the paper, and a
reviewer has written the following statement in his/her comments:

"You should be looking at the percentage of marriages which break-up
after 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc. by year of marriage. I am certain
that Statistics Canada could supply this data."

We are not quite so certain that Statistics Canada could supply this
data --- !

She would like to be able to comment on the reviewer's comment, so I
said would go to our source of all StatsCan knowledge -- our DLI reps,
and see what authoritative response you might be able to provide. She
will be very grateful!

Answer

1) Some of the main statistical data items included in the Divorce Database are:

- Court where divorce was registered
- Date the divorce application was filed
- Applicant for divorce
- Date of birth of husband and wife
- Husband and wife's previous marital status
- Date of marriage
- Reason for marriage breakdown
- Effective date of divorce
- Number of dependents
- Custody of dependents
- Date of birth of dependents

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3235&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

Not sure if we have access to this database...

2) Data tables from the Divorce Database that Walter mentions below are available through CANSIM. Here is the most relevant CANSIM table number and title:

Table 101-65191
Divorces, by duration of marriage, Canada, provinces and territories, annual (number)

In addition, the publication 'Divorces in Canada" provides a nice summary listing of other divorce-related data available through Statistics Canada.

I hope this helps.