OTTAWA--The institution of marriage is on the decline in the metropolitan area of Montreal, according to new census data that offers fresh insight into the complex composition of modern-day Canadian families.

The latest information from the 2011 census, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, reveals the many different ways Canadians live together as a family unit: married, common-law, same-sex, with or without children and--tracked for the first time--in Brady Bunch-style stepfamilies.

When the census was taken in May 2011, there were 1,034,500 families in the census metropolitan area of Montreal. Statistics Canada defines a ocensus familyö as being composed of a married or common-law couple, including those with children, or of a lone parent living with at least one child in the same household.

Married couples - those with and without children - make up 54.9 per cent of families in the Montreal region. ThatIs a decrease from the last census taken in 2006 when 56.5 per cent of couples were married. Common-law couples make up 26.7 per cent of the families, up from 2006.

Across Canada, the percentage of married couples has dropped over the last five years from 68.6 per cent to 67 per cent of all families. Couples living together without being legally married make up 16.7 per cent of all families across the country, an increase from the 2006 census when it was 15.5 per cent.

The new census data shows some other interesting details about families in the Montreal region:

  • Stepfamilies--defined by Statistics Canada as couples living with one or more children where at least one child is the biological or adopted child of only one of the parents--represent 7.6 per cent of all families in the Montreal region. This is the first time Statistics Canada has counted stepfamilies in a census.
  • The percentage of people in the Montreal region who are divorced is 10.5 up from 10.3 per cent in 2006.
  • A total of 0.2 per cent of children under the age of 15 live with at least one grandparent instead of a parent.
  • 18.3 per cent of families are headed by single parents: 14.4 per cent by single mothers and 3.9 per cent by fathers.
  • There are 10,630 same-sex couples (1.3 per cent of all metro Montreal couples), up from 8,365 (1 per cent) in 2006.
  • 6.6 per cent of households have adult children aged 25 and over still living at home.