Marriage in decline despite inclusion of same-sex unions
Marriage rates are in decline in Canada despite the inclusion of 1,369 same-sex unions.
Matthew Johnston - July 15, 2009
Statistics Canada released its report on marriage statistics for 2004 today revealing that a total of 146,242 marriages were registered in Canada, a 0.8% drop from 2003.
This drop is consistent with a downward trend in marriage rates since 2000.
Marriage rates per 1,000 population, including same-sex marriages, look like this:
2000 – 5.1
2001 – 4.7
2002 – 4.7
2003 – 4.7
2004 – 4.6
Prior to 2003, marriage was defined as the union of two persons of the opposite sex. Following provincial court rulings in 2003, vital statistics registries in Ontario and British Columbia started registering marriages of same–sex couples. In 2004, subsequent rulings by courts in five provinces (Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador) and one territory (Yukon) expanded the number of jurisdictions registering same–sex marriages. A court ruling in New Brunswick allowed same–sex marriages, a month before federal legislation legalized same–sex marriages across Canada, on July 20th, 2005. Starting with the year 2003, Statistics Canada publishes data on three types of marriages: opposite–sex marriage, male same–sex marriage and female same–sex marriage.
There were 1,369 same-sex marriages registered in 2004.
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