July 26, 2011: Cost-Cutting Measure Forces StatsCan to Stop Tracking Divorce Rates

By April Lopez

Due to cost-cutting measures initiated by Ottawa, Statistics Canada (StatsCan) will stop tracking divorce rates in the country.

The agency did not want to stop publishing marriage and divorce rates, according to Ian McKinnon, chair of the National Statistics Council that advises StatsCan.

But gathering such data was in the bottom five priorities of their agency.

StatsCan will be able to save $250,000 a year due to this cost-cutting measure.

The agency's latest report revealed that before couples reach their 50th wedding anniversary, 43.1 percent of marriages in Canada are expected to end in divorce.

This is based on a 2008 data report.

In reality, StatsCan already stopped linking the marriage and divorce statistics which were collected by Canadian provinces and territories in 2008.

But StatsCan's compulsory short-term form census and voluntary national household survey would still include marital status questions.

Since 2001 divorces in Canada have been averaging 70,000 per year.

The lowest divorce rate is in Nunavut while the highest rates of divorces and separations are in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.

Find local divorce information, click here: http://www.divorcemag.com/findprofessional.php

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