Military families in Canada
Release date: January 13, 2025
Description: Military families in Canada
In 2021, there were 345,180 military families in Canada, accounting for 3.4% of all Canadian families.
Active military families: 53,510
- Couple families where one spouse/partner was serving and the other had no military experience: 74.1%
- Couple families where both spouses/partners were serving: 11.8%
- Couple families where one spouse/partner was serving and the other was a Veteran: 7.5%
- One-parent families where the parent was serving: 6.6%
Veteran families: 291,670
- Couple families where one spouse/partner was a Veteran and the other had no military experience: 87.6%
- One-parent families where the parent was a Veteran: 6.5%
- Couple families where both spouses/partners were Veterans: 6.0%
Over 8 in 10 military families were Veteran families, while the rest were active (serving).
Among all active military families in Canada, 11.1% lived in the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area (CMA)
| Active military families | Veteran families | Non-military families | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa–Gatineau | 11.1% | 7.8% | 3.8% |
| Halifax | 8.2% | 3.9% | 1.2% |
| Québec | 7.6% | 3.7% | 2.2% |
In 2021, active military families were much more likely than Veteran and non-military families to live in a different province or territory than 5 years earlierNote 1
| Active military families | Veteran families | Non-military families | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Couple families | 24.1% | 4.0% | 2.4% |
| One-parent families | 15.4% | 4.0% | 1.9% |
Notes: “Serving” includes people who responded that they were serving in the regular force or Primary Reserve at the time of the 2021 Census.
When data are summed or combined, the total value may not correspond to the individual values since totals and subtotals are rounded separately.
Source: Bastien, N. and C. Tuey, 2025, “A portrait of military families in Canada from the 2021 Census,” Insights on Canadian Society, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 75-006-X.
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