A researcher is looking for the following info.
And apart from looking at each year individually or putting together a couple of years, I have not been able to find it.
Can anyone help me with this request?
“Specifically, I am looking to find out the percentage of the population (aged 15 and over) in each census from 1976 to 2016 that were:
(1) Single
(2) Married
(3) Widowed
(4) Divorced
(5) Separated
(6) Common-law
The most important years for my purposes are 1981 and 2011, but I'd like to have 50 years worth of data from 1976-2016 if possible.”
Answer:
Vital Statistics stopped being gathered to that level of granularity in 2008 (they're submitted to StatsCan from various Provincial Departments). I know for sure that divorce rates are not available, though births and deaths still are.
Follow-Up Comment:
I checked, and you’re completely Senioritis-free! Both of these pages (a and b below) note under Data release, “2008 is the last year for which these data were collected”.
a)Vital Statistics, Divorce Database, Survey 3235, (data from the Department of Justice Canada)
i. Note, the StatCan Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics released this: Divorce cases in civil court, 2010/2011
ii. Also noted in Parenting and child support after separation or divorce
“there are multiple data sources that can provide information on separated or divorced Canadians: the Census of Population, the General Social Survey (GSS) on Families and the Civil Courts Survey”
b)Vital Statistics, Marriage Database, Survey 3232 (data from provincial and territorial registries)
i. GSS-related publications touch on narrower topics if at all like: Emerging trends in living arrangements and conjugal unions for current and future seniors 1981-2011
I did a basic presentation on “vital” stats a few years ago and noted that the Report on the Demographic Situation in Canada perhaps should touch on these topics but is slow do so. The “latest” report include 2011 Census data only on marital status. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/91-209-X . But it’s interesting to know about this report for topics like fertility through to 2016 (data available thanks to the births database).
Just a side note that responsibility for tracking therapeutic abortions was with StatCan from 1969 to 1994 and was transferred to CIHI in 1995. I don’t know if this older data can be found via CIHI, but a couple of StatCan sources are: Teenage Abortions and Births, for women aged 13 through 19, Canada, provinces and territories - 1974 to 1995 [B2020 on Odesi], and Health Reports, Winter 1997, Vol. 9 no. 3 Marital status and abortion
