Canada Divorce Rate Statistics: What Does The Future Hold?
According to a 2011 General Social Survey on Families, around five million Canadians either divorced or separated sometime within the last 20 years.
Clinical counselor Bill Wagg said: “We are the first and second generation to have such a high divorce rate. In the last 10 years, there’s been a real effort to have children spend equal time with each parent. We don’t know yet how that’s going to work out for the kids, having two homes at a young age. It will also be interesting to see the impact of greater divorce over the next 20 years.”
Falling rates
Wagg seems to give the impression that divorce rates are higher than ever, despite recent evidence to the contrary. Statistics Canada’s most recent report, dating between 2006 – 2011 showed that divorce rates in the country had actually dropped by a full 8 per cent. What’s more, divorce cases were “dropping steadily each year” according to a 2012 article by the Globe and Mail.
Could divorce rates still be falling in Canada? According to the author of the report, Mary Bess Kelly, falling divorce rates could be down to a number of factors: “The proportion of married couples has been steadily decreasing over the past 20 years while common-law unions are becoming more numerous, as are lone-parent families, which have proliferated since the mid-1960s.”
If Kelly and Adshade are to be believed, divorce rates in Canada could be a lot lower than we currently think they are, although without the statistics to back them up, we’re still glaring into the abyss.
Who’s getting divorced?
When you think of the average type of person to get divorced in your neighborhood, who are you mostly likely to think of? Earlier this year, the Vancouver Sun published findings from a recent report by Baylor University, and you may be surprised at the findings.
The report found that Evangelical Protestants have particularly high divorce rates, with a higher than average score on the divorce-o-meter, proving that religion doesn’t always hold families together. However, Canadian evangelicals only make up around 10 per cent of the country’s population, so who else is getting divorced?
The median age for Canadians to get divorced is 44 for men, and 41 for women respectively, and a lot of people in that age group also happen to be parents. With divorce being linked to the staggering child poverty rates in Canada today (an estimated 1, 331, 530 children living in poverty), we should really be looking at how divorce is affecting children and families financially, as well as look to the future of divorce statistics in Canada.
The future
At the moment, the future is hard to predict, although questions need to be raised about the government’s ability to measure the effects of public policy and to take into account what’s required when implementing new policy.
Seeing as divorce can have a negative impact on mental and physical health, plus other major social issues such as incomes and education, the impact of not having any statistics could become a ticking time bomb if nothing is done to measure these rates. The fact that child poverty has actually increased since 1989 is not particularly promising.
Back in 2011, Toronto family law specialist Steven Benmor, said: “Governments need to set policy and create law and they do so by recognizing what is going on in society. By not having this data available, it’s going to limit the information that governments and legislators have in order to set policy and make law.”
In 2014, political writer and broadcaster Tasha Kheiriddin seems to have formed part of a solution for those facing poverty, in the form of tax breaks and incentives for couples to stay married.
Kheiriddan wrote in her recent article: “You can’t force people to get or stay married. But you can offer incentives for them to do so. One way is through the tax system: income-splitting is one way of eliminating the so-called ‘marriage penalty’ that two-parent households with unequal earners face compared to dual-earner households, or two unmarried parents. Tax breaks for families also place an economic premium on marriage.”
Conclusion
With over a million Canadian children facing poverty, and the government currently in the dark over real Canada divorce rate statistics, there are real calls for changes to be made in terms of transparency and offering better policies for struggling families, whether they decide to break up or stay together.
Are you in need of a family lawyer?
Divorce is a traumatic and life-altering event that necessitates legal representation by an effective and understanding professional. Our family law lawyers at Fine & Associates Professional Corporation practice a personalized approach to law and will be there with you every step of the way to ensure that you receive the undivided attention you deserve during this difficult time in your life.