Census figures alarm family groups

Numbers show a decrease in traditional families and increase in single-family households

According to the 2011 Census data, the traditional
family is on the decline in Canada. Sxc.hu.

The B.C. Catholic has a story by CCN's Deborah Gyapong about the reaction traditional family groups had to the 2011 Census that shows traditional families are declining, while single family's on the rise:

Peter Murphy, assistant director of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF), said the “handwriting is on the wall” as the Census reveals the number of common-law couples has risen 13.9 per cent since 2006 and lone-parent families have increased 8 per cent.

The number of children living with married parents declined from 68.4 per cent to 63.6 per cent from 2006 to 2011, Statistics Canada reported in the Sept. 19 release of data on family structures. Figures examined over 50 years showed a dramatic decline from around 90 per cent of married couple families in 1961. A steep decline began in the mid-1970s.

“Despite an attempt by the media to make ‘diversity’ in family structure seem like a good in itself, when it comes to questions pertaining to procreation and child-rearing the ‘writing’ is inscribed on the human body,” Murphy said in an email interview. “It takes a man and a woman to conceive a child and, as the social sciences have told us repeatedly, it is in the best interest of children to be raised by a man and a woman united in marriage.”

Read the full story at The B.C. Catholic website.