OTTOWA – Canada’s 2011 Census of Population has shown that the number of same-sex couples has continued to increase. Same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada in July 2005. Between 2006 and 2011, the number of same-sex married couples nearly tripled (+181.5 percent), according to the Census.
However, officials have now realized that many of the “couples” were only splitting the rent and therefore data from the Census means that there is an overestimation of the true number of married same-sex couples.
Under a “Note to readers” header the Statistics Canada Web site states in a caveat, “The 2011 Census of Population introduced for the first time a specific response on household relationships to determine the number of same-sex married couples. Analysis of the data on same-sex married couples has shown that there may be an overestimation of this family type. In total, there were 64,575 same-sex couples in Canada in 2011, of which 21,015 were married. The range of overestimation of same-sex married couples at the national level is between 0 and 4,500. This data should be used with caution. This does not affect the quality of other data from this release.”
