Families

[Ed Weick]

Michael Spencer: >I immediately thought of the growing number of single mother familes >and the very next post was a reply from Keith Hudson, remarking on the >rapid increase in the number of single women family units. > >If the same rapid increase exists in Canada that Keith reports from the >UK, then there are presumably a great many families in Canada with >incomes clustered around the average female income. I infer that the >two-income family must average considerably higher than the $51k >figure Ed quotes, another sign of growing polarization or bimodality >in income distribution that doesn't appear when the average family >incomes are cited without some measure of family demographics. It seems that the two parent, husband and wife, family is still very much the norm in Canada. However, single parent families, particularly families headed by women, are becoming more prevalent. Their numbers and their proportion of total families is growing. Here are some numbers from the past three Censuses: 1986 1991 1996 Total families 6,734,975 100.00% 7,356,165 100.00% 7,837,865 100.00% Total husband-wife families 5,881,335 87.33% 6,401,460 87.02% 6,700,355 85.49% Total lone parent families 853,640 12.67% 954,705 12.98% 1,137,510 14.51% Headed by male 151,740 2.25% 168,240 2.29% 192,257 2.45% Headed by female 701,900 10.42% 786,470 10.69% 945,235 12.06% Total husband-wife families include couples living in common-law. Ed