Publications

    2011 General Social Survey : Overview of Families in Canada

    Selected Tables on Families in Canada

    Selected Tables on Families in Canada

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    Introduction

    Table 1 Distribution of people who intend to marry or remarry by de facto marital status and region of residence, Canada, 2011

    Table 2 Main reason why people have married or would like to marry their current partner, Canada, 2011

    Table 3 Main reason why people living in common-law do not intend to marry their current partner, Canada, 2011

    Table 4 Distribution of unmarried people not in a common-law relationship, by marital status and being in an intimate relationship with someone they do not live with, Canada, 2011

    Table 5 Distribution of unmarried people not in a common-law relationship, by age group and being in an intimate relationship with someone they do not live with, Canada, 2011

    Table 6 Distribution of unmarried people not in a common-law relationship, by province and being in an intimate relationship with someone they do not live with, Canada, 2011

    Table 7 Distribution of persons in an intimate relationship, whose partners live in a different household, by place of residence of the spouse, Canada, 2011

    Table 8 Distribution of persons in an intimate relationship, whose partners live in a different household, by intention to live together, Canada, 2011

    Table 9 Distribution of the population using contraceptive methods to prevent pregnancy, Canada,2011

    Table 10 Sterilization and infertility among Canadians, 2011, 2001 and 1995

    Table 11 Distribution of the population by de facto marital status, age and the presence of children under 25 years in the household, Canada, 2011

    Table 12 Distribution of parents of preschool-aged children by use of child care arrangement, Canada, 2011

    Table 13 Distribution of parents of preschool-aged children according to their affiliation to a « Centre de la petite enfance », Quebec, 2011

    Table 14 Distribution of parents of school-aged children by use of child care arrangement, Canada, 2011

    Table 15 Distribution of the population by age group and grandparent status, Canada, 2011 and 2001

    Table 16 Distribution of grandparents by number of grandchildren, Canada, 2011 and 2001

    Table 17 Distribution of the population by breakup of parents' union, by age group and province, 2011 and 2001

    Table 18 Distribution of separated or divorced parents, by primary residence of their children, Canada, 2011

    Table 19 Distribution of separated or divorced parents by major decision making role about the health, religion and/or education of their children, Canada, 2011

    Text box 1
    Methodology

    The target population for the GSS is persons 15 years of age and over residing in Canada, excluding the following two groups:

    1. Residents of Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories
    2. Full-time residents of institutions

    All GSS interviews are conducted by telephone. Households without landbased telephones were therefore excluded. In 2010, the proportion of households without telephone service was estimated at 1.1% (Residential Telephone Service Survey [RTSS], December 2010). Interviews were not conducted by cell phone, thus eliminating all individuals who had only cellular service. This group represents 13% of the population (RTSS, December 2010). Survey estimates were weighted to account for persons without telephones.

    Data for Cycle 25 of the GSS were collected from February to November 2011 in five (non-overlapping) waves of two months each. The sample was evenly distributed over the 10 months and selected using the Elimination of Non-Working Banks technique, a Random Digit Dialling (RDD) method.

    The response rate for Cycle 25 of the GSS was 65.8%. This was based on the 22,435 respondents. Statistical significance testing is available upon request.

    Data limitations
    It is worth noting that the figures appearing in this publication are estimates based on data collected from a small fraction of the population (roughly one person in 1,250) and are subject to error. There are two types of errors: sampling errors and non-sampling errors.

    Sampling error is the difference between an estimate derived from the sample and the one that would have been obtained from a complete census using the same data collection methods. The size of the sampling error can be estimated from the survey results and an indication of the magnitude of this error. If the estimated sampling error is greater than 33% of the estimate, it is considered too unreliable to publish and the symbol "F" is printed in table cells where this occurs. Although not considered too unreliable to publish, estimates with an estimated error between 16.6% and 33.3% are marked "qualified" and used with caution. These are identified with an "E".

    All other types of errors, such as coverage, response, processing and non-response errors, are non-sampling errors. It is difficult to identify and evaluate the scope of many of these errors.

    End of text box 1.

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