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Printed from The Vanier Institute of the Family's website at www.vifamily.ca. © 2007. Fascinating Families Fascinating Families is a web feature that builds on VIF’s expertise in monitoring family trends and in making complex statistics accessible and understandable to a wide audience. Published on the 15th of each month, Fascinating Families highlights timely, family-related facts and uses a “family lens” to frame a brief discussion of the implications for families in Canada. This feature is designed for journalists, policy makers, educators, students and anyone interested in understanding the strengths of Canadian families and the challenges they face. Hyperlinks to related resources and research are provided whenever possible. For more information, contact vif@vifamily.ca
The living arrangements of older persons — where they live and with whom — is an important health and social policy issue and will become more so as the number of elderly persons climbs. [more]
The dramatic rise in women's labour market participation over the last 30 years has triggered a sizeable increase in dual-income families and transformed the process, timing and experience of retirement. [more]
High levels of immigration have resulted in growing racial and ethnic diversity in Canada. In 2006, more than 200 different ethnic groups – either singly or in combination – were identified by the Census...[more]
Shift work is now an integral part of the Canadian economy. In 2005, 28% of workers aged 19 to 64 worked a shift schedule.1 One in four full-time workers (26%) worked shift...[more]
For two-parent families, two earners is the norm, and it has been that way for many years. Even in 1980, only about one-third of these families (31%) relied on a single earner. By 1990, this had fallen to just 19%, and in 2007, to 14%. If we include older children with employment earnings, and other income-earning relatives that may be in the family, a remarkable 85% of today’s two-parent families have at least two earners in the household.[more]
With the opening of a new decade, we naturally find ourselves reflecting on the past 10 years and projecting forward. For many families in Canada, the first decade of the 21st century brought unprecedented opportunity: these years witnessed continuous labour market growth, moderate rises in average household income, and a substantial upward shift in household savings rates [more]
Happiness is not just a matter of money and earnings, but, as importantly, of the nature and quality of the people and the places around you. How we associate with each other, and on what terms, has enormous implications for our individual and collective well-being [more]
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the House of Commons unanimous resolution to end child poverty by the year 2000. Clearly, this target has been missed: more than one in eight children in Canada live in poverty [more]  Issue no. 21 Who Cares? Volunteering and Families
Families are running hard to keep up with the pace of modern life. The Vanier Institute of the Family has been tracking the efforts of families to balance work and family for many years. Canadians now spend more time engaged in paid employment and work-related activities and less time with family [more]
With kids back to school, many families are fine tuning their morning and afternoon routines. For most, this process begs important questions around transportation - whether to walk, cycle, or ride (either by car oor bus) to school and to work [more]
How often have you heard someone refer to their pet as “one of the family”? [more]
During the past century, countries around the world have seen remarkable changes in family structure and family dynamics...[more]
Many have heard the African proverb, "it takes a village to raise a child" and here in Canada this quote rings true in many Aboriginal communities...[more]
According to Statistics Canada, there were 1,132,290 female lone-parent families in Canada in 2006, representing 80% of all lone-parent families, and 12.7% of Canada’s 8.9 million families...[more]
In a recent study, Statistics Canada reported that the median earnings of individuals employed full-time full-year in 2005 was...[more]
There is a direct trade-off between work and famil time...[more]
At some point in their lives, nearly all Canadians will contemplate having...[more]
November is Adoption Awareness Month. Adoption awareness includes educating, promoting, and learning about adoption. [more]
Whether we refer to them in English, French, Inuktitut or Chinese…as a group, Canada’s grandparents are a large, diverse and growing part of the Canadian population... [more]
The common and frequent experience of moving should come as no surprise. Mobility is fundamentally tied to family life — the way families transform and change, and the way they... [more] Issue no. 9 Reading the Household Books
As the summer months approach, many Canadians look forward to the pleasure of reading a good book. Of course, the importance of books in the lives of Canadians extends far beyond their... [more] Issue no. 8 Fathers Matter
The total number of fathers in Canada is surprisingly difficult to ascertain. Most national surveys, including the Census, only count fathers who are currently... [more] Issue no. 7 Assortative Marriage - Who is marrying whom?
With wedding season on our doorstep, let's take a look at just who is marrying whom in Canada... [more] Issue no. 6 Family Friendly Environmental Policies
Interestingly, despite the importance that Canadians assign to both children and the environment, it is widely perceived that the decisions that we are making as a society are: only... [more] Issue no. 5 Saving Next to Nothing
A useful way to think about savings is to use the metaphor of shock absorbers.When well maintained, and with adequate “spring”, they provide an essential cushion to the inevitable bumps and potholes we encounter. Without them... [more] Issue no. 4 Paid work and housework combined... lone parents do the most
There is paid work (including paid and unpaid overtime and commuting). There is also unpaid work (including household activities, civic and voluntary service). Household work comprises cooking, washing up, housekeeping, maintenance, shopping and child care. Not surprisingly, those working the longest hours... [more] Issue no. 3 Empty Spaces on Pantry Shelves: Food Insecurity in a Nation of Wealth
For most of us, the Holidays are a time to indulge ourselves and our families with highly anticipated food favourites. Sadly, for almost one in ten Canadian households, this time of year can be a harsh reminder of empty spaces on pantry shelves. These are the Canadians – young and old – who do not... [more]
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