Canadian Social Trends

Spring 2005

Each quarter, Canadian Social Trends integrates data from many sources to examine emerging social trends and issues. The spring 2005 issue contains five articles.

The feature article "Becoming Canadian: Intent, process, and outcome," that is available free online, explores the characteristics associated with becoming a Canadian citizen among immigrants who have resided in Canada for various periods of time. While the majority do become Canadian, citizenship take-up rates do vary by admission class, place of birth, age at immigration and length of residence in Canada.

"I am Canadian" explores why a growing number of people have begun describing themselves in the Census as Canadians and follows by examining the characteristics of individuals who reported having a Canadian ethnic background.

"Marital satisfaction during the retirement years" examines older couples' (aged 50 to 74 years) perceptions of their relationship during retirement or the years leading to retirement.

"Self-employment activity of rural Canadians" describes non-farm self-employment among workers aged 20 to 64 living in Canada's rural areas and small towns.

"Chinese Canadians: Enriching the cultural mosaic", examines the history of the Chinese in Canada, its diverse population and its contribution to the nation's rich multicultural mosaic.

This issue of Canadian Social Trends also features the latest social indicators as well as information about Statistics Canada's products and services.

The spring 2005 issue of Canadian Social Trends, no. 76 (11-008-XIE, $9/$29; 11-008-XPE, $12/$39) is now available.

For more information, contact Client Services and Dissemination (613-951-5979; sasd-dssea@statcan.gc.ca), Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division.