Stepfamilies: Counted for the first time in the 2011 Census

Friday, August 17, 2012

Description of announcement

On September 19, 2012, as part of the 2011 Census release on families, households and marital status, counts of stepfamilies in Canada will be released for the first time, providing a more detailed picture of census families in Canada. In addition, some sociodemographic characteristics of stepfamilies will be available for various levels of geography.

Question 6 of the 2011 Census questionnaire, Relationship to Person 1, contained three response categories which allowed respondents to identify household members as sons or daughters of both Persons 1 and 2, of Person 1 only, or of Person 2 only. These three categories replaced a single category (son or daughter of Person 1) from previous censuses.

Couple census families with children can be distinguished as either intact families, in which all children are the biological or adopted children of both married spouses or common-law partners, or stepfamilies, in which at least one child is the biological or adopted child of only one married spouse or common-law partner and whose birth or adoption preceded the current relationship. Stepfamilies can be further classified as simple or complex stepfamilies, based on the relationships between the children present in the home and the parents. It will be possible to compare the characteristics of intact families with those of the various stepfamily types.

Reasons leading to this announcement/decision

To inform users of new content on stepfamilies in the 2011 Census release on families, households and marital status.

Impact

Increased awareness of new content for the 2011 Census.

Additional documentation

New departmental standards were approved on September 19, 2011 for stepfamily status of couple families with children and relationship structure of stepfamily.