Families with young children: A sociodemographic profile

Released: 2024-10-22

The early years of life are recognized as critical to learning and development, with parents having a foundational role in the growth of their young children.

This study describes the characteristics of families with at least one child aged 5 years or younger, including the sociodemographic characteristics of the parents of young children.

Because of population aging and changing living arrangements, families with young children in Canada are decreasing in prevalence relative to families with older children or those without children at home. The parents of young children are substantially older today than a generation ago, a result of the continued postponement of childbearing. They are also increasingly likely to be living in a common-law union.

Parents of young children today are highly diverse from an ethnocultural perspective, with one-third having immigrated to Canada. In addition to welcoming a new child, most parents of young children have recently moved, adding further changes during a time of major transformation in their lives.

Reflecting the formative nature of the first years of life, young children are the focus of numerous social programs aimed at providing support to them and their parents, including maternity and parental benefits and specific provisions of the Canada Child Benefit. In recent years, the federal government initiated a funding plan to provide parents in Canada with $10-a-day (on average) regulated child care spaces for children aged 0 to 5 years.

In the years following the 2021 Census—the source of data for this study—Canada has experienced record-high levels of net international migration, high inflation and rising housing prices. In this context, the characteristics of families with young children are expected to continue to evolve.

Fewer families have young children at home

In 2021, Canada was home to 10.3 million census families—that is, couples with or without children and one-parent families. Among these census families, 1.6 million had at least one child aged 5 years or younger, while the majority had either older children or no children at home. The share of families with young children decreased steadily from 24.0% in 1981 to 16.0% in 2021, as the number of families with older children or no children grew much faster over this period.

Chart 1 
Number of census families by presence and age of children, Canada, 1981 to 2021

Chart 2 
Distribution (in percent) of census families by presence and age of children, Canada, 1981 to 2021

The declining share of families with young children has been driven by three key factors: population aging, decreasing fertility rates and changing norms around living arrangements. As the composition of Canada's population has become more heavily concentrated at older ages, relatively more parents today have children who have grown up and left the parental home. This trend has been compounded by the fact that older adults today are more likely to live with a spouse or partner (and therefore form a couple family without children) than those in previous generations.

Canada's low and decreasing fertility rate contributes to population aging and to the declining proportion of families that have young children. Parents today not only have fewer children but also have them at older ages, on average, compared with parents in previous generations. Delayed fertility has occurred in tandem with an increase in young adults living with their parents. More than one-third (35.1%) of young adults aged 20 to 34 years were living with at least one of their parents in 2021, contributing significantly to the number of families with older children at home.

Over one in five families with young children have parents in a common-law union

While the majority of families with young children in Canada were headed by married parents in 2021 (61.9%), the prevalence of this situation has decreased substantially over the last four decades (86.4% in 1981). This shift was driven by the rapid growth of common-law couples over this period.

Chart 3 
Distribution (in percent) of census families with at least one child aged 5 or younger by family structure, Canada, 1981 to 2021

Over one in five families with young children (21.8%) were headed by parents in a common-law union in 2021, more than five times the share four decades earlier (4.0% in 1981) and about double the share among families with older children (10.4%). While common-law unions have grown in popularity at all ages, this type of union remains most prevalent in younger adulthood, when having a young child at home is more likely.

Among the 268,170 one-parent families with young children in 2021, more than four in five (81.2%) were headed by mothers, a proportion down slightly from 1981 (84.6%). In comparison with families with young children, families with older children in 2021 were twice as likely to be headed by one parent (16.3% versus 32.7%). Families with older children may include adult children, where the flows of care and support between the child and the parent may be different than among families with young children.

Young children, older parents

As a consequence of the continued postponement of childbearing since the 1970s, parents of young children today are substantially older, on average, than those from a generation earlier.

Infographic 1 
Age distribution (in percent) of parents in census families with at least one child aged 5 or younger, Canada, 1981 and 2021

In 2021, parents of young children were, on average, 36.2 years old, up from 30.7 years in 1981. Fathers of young children were older on average (37.6 years) than mothers of young children (34.9 years) in 2021, reflecting a longstanding trend of men being older at union formation and fatherhood. Among all parents of young children, mothers in one-parent families had the youngest average age in both periods. However, these mothers also experienced the largest increase in average age over the last four decades, from 27.8 years in 1981 to 33.7 years in 2021 (+21.2%).

More than half of parents with young children moved within the previous five years

In 2021, the majority (62.2%) of parents of young children reported having moved within the previous five years. This was substantially higher than the rate among parents of older children (27.8%) or spouses or partners without children (35.4%).

The greater relative mobility of parents with young children is partly related to their younger average age (36.2 years), compared with the average ages of parents of older children (52.2 years) or spouses and partners without children (58.2 years), as mobility rates are highest among younger adults.

Residential moves in the years leading up to a birth may also have been related to a newly formed marriage or common-law union, or a desire to change one's location or housing characteristics (e.g., more bedrooms, a larger backyard or other features) in anticipation of their perceived advantages for child rearing.

The likelihood of having moved within the previous year among parents of young children was slightly lower in 2021 (16.4%) than in 2016 (17.8%). This was due in part to the unique context of 2020—the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic—during which the number of international and interprovincial migrants decreased significantly.

High level of ethnocultural diversity among parents of young children

In 2021, one-third (33.3%) of parents of young children in Canada were immigrants, slightly higher than the share of immigrants among the total population aged 25 to 64 (27.7%). Among these immigrant parents, the majority (71.4%) had their youngest child after immigrating to Canada.

Similar to the prevalence of immigrant parents, about one-third (33.9%) of parents with young children were part of a racialized group in 2021. South Asian (9.9%) and Black (5.9%) people were slightly overrepresented among parents of young children relative to their weight in the general population aged 25 to 64 (7.3% and 4.0%, respectively).

Overall, racialized parents of young children (14.0%) were less likely to be in one-parent families than other parents (17.4%), but there was considerable variation in this regard. For instance, 7.4% of South Asian parents of young children were in one-parent families, compared with 28.7% of Black parents of young children.

Infographic 2 
Distribution (in percent) of parents in census families with at least one child aged 5 or younger, by racialized group characteristics, Canada, 2021

Indigenous people represented 5.3% of parents of young children in 2021, including those who were First Nations (3.2%), Métis (1.6%) or Inuit (0.3%). These proportions were similar to the respective weights of these groups within the total population aged 25 to 64.

In contrast, Indigenous parents of young children were overrepresented among one-parent families: just over one in seven (15.5%) parents of young children in one-parent families in 2021 were Indigenous. Many of these one-parent families with young children shared a home with an older member of their family. Compared with other young children (2.8%), Indigenous children aged 0 to 4 (9.5%) were more likely to live with one parent and at least one grandparent in 2021.

Chart 4 
Proportion (in percent) of parents that are Indigenous among all parents in census families with at least one child aged 5 or younger, by census family structure and Indigenous identity group, Canada, 2021

Among parents of young children, nearly as many have no religion as have a Christian affiliation

Young children reared by parents with a specific religious affiliation may participate in religious activities and communities. In 2021, most parents of young children (61.3%) reported an affiliation with a religion, most commonly Christian denominations (44.2%). In contrast, 38.7% of parents of young children reported having no religious affiliation.

People reporting a Muslim religious affiliation were overrepresented among the population of parents of young children (8.2%) relative to their prevalence in the general population aged 25 to 64 (4.7%).

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).