BCIFV home > Newsletter > 1997 Archives > Fall 1997 articles

Quick Facts

• In 1995, there were just over 1 million families in BC, up 96% from 1971.
  
  
• Most children live in "intact" families, in which all children live with their biological or adoptive parents. In 1995, 91% of all couples with children consisted of intact families.
  
  
• In 1995, 27% of all divorce cases settled in court in BC resulted in joint custody, up from just 2% in 1986 and higher than the national average of 21%.
  
  
• In most families with children, both parents work outside the home. In 1996, 67% of women in two-spouse families with children under age 16 were employed, up from 38% in 1976; 60% of women in two-spouse families with a child under age three were employed in 1996, up from 23% in 1976.
  
  
• Employed women with a partner and children in BC spent almost 2 1/2 hours more per day on unpaid work, including housework, childcare and shopping than employed men with children.
  
  
• Over one-in-five children in British Columbia lives in a low-income family.
  
  
• Nearly nine -out-of-ten lone parents in BC are women.
  
  
• Children in lone-parent families headed by women are much more likely to be poor than children in two-parent households. In 1995, 57% of children under age 16 living with a female lone parent lived in a low-income situation, compared with 15% of children in two-parent families.
  
  
• About half of seniors in BC live with members of their immediate family.
  
  
• In 1995, 75% of all single family households in this province were homeowners.
  
  
• Lone-parent families were much less likely than two-parent households to own a home, with 61% living in rented accommodations.

Reprinted from Diversity and Change: A Profile of British Columbia Families, BC Council for Families.