Marriage on the decline: StatsCan
My husband and I just recently celebrated our first wedding anniversary, and while we are super excited about our marital union, it looks as though we’re in the minority of those saying ‘I do.’
The National Post reports that numbers from Statistics Canada show in 2008 there were 147,788 couples in Canada who tied the knot, which is down 14 per cent from 1991 when 172,251 couples were wed.
That might not seem like a lot, but marriages have been steadily on the decline for the last 20 years, with common-law relationships picking up the slack, particularly in Quebec.
And for the first time, in 2006, families without children outnumbered those with kids in the household.
So not only are we not getting married, we’re also not creating more people who one day may or may not get married.
[See also: The truth about married crushes]
Could it be that perhaps couples are eschewing marriage because they aren’t having children?
Not so, according to the numbers more children live in households with unmarried parents. So what’s causing this trend then?
Those with at least some level of post-secondary education are more likely to tie the knot, so perhaps as more people become educated, they’re simply delaying marriage until they’re more established in their life roles, and in another 5-10 years we’ll see a big upswing in the marriage numbers.
Or, maybe not.
Maybe people no longer see the need for a formal marriage when a common-law relationship now offers many of the same economic and social benefits.
To me at least, it doesn’t really feel like there are fewer people getting married. Many of my friends are busy planning weddings, and those of my husband’s friends who weren’t married years ago are also all getting married now.
We’ve gone to two stag and does in the past month alone!
I mean, no one says you need to be married or even in a relationship to be happy, but it certainly is nice to have someone to share all life’s precious moments with and snuggle up to at night.
Are you delaying or refraining from marriage? Why or why not?
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