Canada’s latest "family portrait" is for the first time revealing a census count of same-sex "married" couples.
And according to Statistics Canada, which released the results on Wednesday, the number of same-sex couples has surged five times the pace of opposite-sex couples between 2001 and 2006.
In total, the 2006 census revealed 45,345 same-sex couples in Canada – 16.5 per cent of which were “married” couples. Others were living in a common-law union. The number of homosexual couples jumped 32.6 per cent over the past five years while heterosexual couples grew only 5.9 per cent. Overall, the total count of families in 2006 was 8,896,840, up 6.4 per cent from 2001.
Further data showed that over half (53.7 per cent) of same-sex "married" couples were men. Around 9 per cent of same-sex couples had children aged 24 years and under living in their home in 2006. The presence of children was more common in female unions (16.3 per cent) than male ones (2.9 per cent).
Census officials included same-sex couples in their 2006 count to reflect the results of Canada's legalisation of same-sex "marriage". Canada in 2005 became the third country in the world to legalise homosexual "marriage" nationwide, after the Netherlands and Belgium.
Spain and South Africa have since followed in legalising it.
"It's the first time that we've asked same-sex marriage so it's really a benchmark number," Anne Milan, a senior analyst at Statistics Canada, told The Associated Press.
Gay and lesbian activists, however, were not happy with the census questionnaire which included an "other" box for same-sex "married" couples.
The term "spouse" and "husband" and "wife" were ruled out during focus group testing as they proved too confusing or not commonly used in the gay community, reported Milan.
