Divorce Rates in Canada

Question

Could you point me to the latest divorce rates in Canada. I could only find 2008 data.

Answer

CANSIM tables pertaining to divorce rates were derived from the Vital Statistics - Divorce Database, which is no longer active. For more information, see the survey page found here

<http://www23.statcan.gc.ca:81/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2&SDDS=3235>

The most recent data available: Data release - July 13, 2011 (2008 is the last year for which these data were collected.)

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.

Divorce Settlements

Question

A student has been told by a professor that statistics on a given topic exist on the STC website, yet I have found no evidence of it. In this case, it's about the amounts of money people get as a result of divorce settlements. Or am I missing something? I would welcome any advice!

Answer

To the best of our knowledge, Statistics Canada does not collect data on the value of divorce settlements. Our main divorce related statistics are divorces counts from vital statistics.

The closest I found to data on money people receive as a result of divorce settlements were variables on support payments in SLID and the Maintenance Enforcement Survey and a study titled "Why Do Children Move into and out of Low Income: Changing Labour Market Conditions or Marriage and Divorce"
(http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11F0019MIE/11F0019MIE1999132.pdf).

Number of children affected by divorce

Question

How many children (0 to 18) in Canada have been affected by divorce? (so this could include children living in lone-parent
families, or children now living in blended families et cetera).

I can get from the shelf tables number of children for a year, but that doesn't tell me a total for Canada over time. I'm sure the
answer is in either in the Census, GSS or Kids, but I can't seem to find a number. I can also find things like "one-third of marriages end in divorce" and "one-half of divorces involve children". But not a total number.

Answer

Census Family PUMF with the following variables:

CFSTRUC - census family structure
PRESCF - presence of children in female household
PRESCM - presence of children in male household
NUCHILD - number of children in household
MARSTLF - legal marital status of female
MARSTLM - legal marital status of male
MARSTHF - historical marital status of female
MARSTHM - historical marital status of male