Peter Jon Mitchell: Declining married families across Canada means children will become rarities

“Babies,” which recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, tells the story of a longtime married couple deciding not to have children. The comedy is the definitive answer to the question the celebrity couple, director Lauren Miller Rogen and husband Seth Rogen, have fielded for years: when are you going to have a baby?

Sign In or Create an Account

The decision whether to have children is rather personal, and it is easy to empathize with a couple who have faced scrutiny over their decision. Even so, the cultural norm of associating babies with marriage is a good thing.

Canadians are free, for the most part, to form families as they choose, yet the married family structure remains the most common family form for raising children. Marriage is correlated with positive outcomes for adults and children, which can, in turn, positively impact individuals and communities.

Columnist Jesse Kline keeps you up to date with what’s happening in Israel and the effects of antisemitism on life here in Canada. Friday mornings.

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Channel Israel will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Marriage as a social institution has been correlated with improved health, economic advantages and increased social mobility for the parents. Children growing up in a family home with two married parents are more likely to enjoy lifelong benefits that include higher educational attainment, as well as positive mental health and emotional well-being.

Despite the prevalence of married families with kids, this family form has been retreating across Canada for decades. The Canadian Married Families Index (CMFI), developed by the think tank Cardus, aims to measure the tempo of this substantial change within individual provinces and territories over the last two decades.

The index combines three federal census data points measured between 2001 and 2021: total fertility rate, the portion of adults aged 25 to 54 who are married, and the proportion of children 14 and under living with their married parents.

A baseline score of 100 points was developed for each region for the 2001 census. Changes in regional index scores were measured over four censuses. The index compares provinces and territories to their own baseline rather than comparing regions to a national standard score.

The average CMFI score in 2021 was 87.40. The sharpest decline occurred between 2016 and 2021, which may have been pandemic driven.

In general, the provinces west of Ontario experienced the least change in index scores. Alberta and Saskatchewan experienced the smallest decline in index points, scoring 91.56 and 91.40 in 2021 respectively.

The largest changes in index scores between 2001 and 2021 were observed in Quebec with more than a 20-point decline, and in Nunavut, which posted a nearly 30-point decline. Changes in the number of children aged 14 and under living with married parents, and the number of adults aged 25 to 54 who are married drove most of the decline, despite higher-than-average fertility in both regions.

Nunavut and Quebec are culturally distinct regions that featured unique family structure patterns that predated the beginning of the study period in 2001. The index indicates these patterns have further solidified over the last two decades.

We should consider why the married family structure is in decline, and why it is declining unevenly across the country. In most regions, Canadians hold positive attitudes toward marriage, and many desire it. Yet it seems that achieving the family life one desires is becoming more difficult.

The increasing cost of living and a shortage of suitable housing is making it difficult for families to start and grow. Federal and provincial governments should consider whether their taxes, benefits, and social policy systems contribute to greater family affordability or inadvertently disincentivize family life.

While economics certainly contributes to delayed family formation, evidence suggests Canadians are delaying children for other reasons. Some young adults feel they need to prioritize their own self-development. For others, the perceived difficulty of modern parenting has caused prospective parents to think twice. Cultural conceptions around parenthood are more difficult to attend to, and the task will become even harder in an increasingly low-fertility society where children are less visible in daily life.

“Babies” gives one couple’s answer to a deeply personal question they are wrestling with. Canada’s falling and uneven CMFI scores raises its own question: what would help more people form the families they already hope to have? Governments can ease material barriers. Communities and cultural institutions can make marriage, parenthood and children more visible in daily life. The future of the married family depends, in part, on whether Canadians can see that life as attainable, supported and worth pursuing.

National Post

This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.