Study: A portrait of military families in Canada from the 2021 Census

In 2021, there were 345,180 military families in Canada, accounting for 3.4% of all Canadian families. Over 8 in 10 military families (84.5%) were Veteran families, and 15.5% were active (serving) military families.

Military families have been recognized for the important role they play in supporting both military operations and its members. Family of military members may, for example, contribute to military members' decisions about entering and staying in military service. They also face unique challenges, such as extended periods of separation when a military member is deployed within or outside the country.

Today, Statistics Canada is releasing a new study entitled, "A portrait of military families in Canada from the 2021 Census," which examines the key sociodemographic characteristics of families of serving members and Veterans aged 17 years and older. The study also examines select characteristics of spouses and partners of serving members to offer a glimpse into their experiences.

Military families can be "active" or "Veteran" based on the military status of the spouses or partners in a couple family or of the parent in a one-parent family. Active military families are those in which at least one spouse, partner or parent was serving in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in 2021. "Veteran families" refers to one-parent families in which the parent is a Veteran and couple families in which at least one of the spouses or partners had previously served in the CAF and the other person was not currently serving.

Veteran families account for the majority of military families in Canada

In 2021, there were 345,180 military families in Canada, accounting for 3.4% of all Canadian families. Over 8 in 10 military families (84.5%) were Veteran families, while nearly 1 in 6 (15.5%) were active military families.

The majority (87.6%) of Veteran families were couple families in which one spouse or partner was a Veteran and the other had no military experience. Further, among Veteran families, 6.0% were dual-Veteran couple families, while 6.5% were Veteran one-parent families.

Most active military families were couple families. In 2021, 74.1% of active military families were couples in which one spouse or partner was serving and the other had no military experience. They were followed by couple families in which both spouses or partners were serving (11.8%) and couple families in which one of the spouses or partners was serving and the other was a Veteran (7.5%). Serving one-parent families made up 6.6% of active military families.

Active military families are younger and more likely to have children than Veteran and non-military families

Military families differed from other Canadian families in many ways, especially those with serving members. This may be due in part to the differing age structure of the military and non-military populations.

Among the population aged 17 years and older, the average age of serving members in 2021 was 35.7 years, compared with 48.3 years for the non-military population and 60.0 years for the Veteran population.

Active military couples (64.1%) were less likely to be married than non-military (77.3%) and Veteran (79.0%) couples in 2021. Active military couples were more likely to have young children at home.

Moreover, among couple families with children of any age, stepfamilies were more commonly found among Veteran families (17.8%) and active military families (15.6%) than among non-military families (11.5%) in 2021.

In 2021, there was also a higher share of same-gender couples among active military couples (1.6%) than among non-military couples (1.2%) and Veteran couples (1.2%).

Military one-parent families were more likely to be headed by men than other one-parent families in 2021. While most (77.9%) non-military one-parent families were headed by women, 54.4% of one-parent active military families and 64.2% of one-parent Veteran families were headed by men. The predominance of men heading military one-parent families may be related to the far greater share of men than women in the serving population (81.3%) and in the Veteran population (84.1%).

Women military spouses are more likely than their non-military counterparts to hold a postsecondary degree

In 2021, there were 39,635 military spouses or partners, the majority (93.6%) of whom were women. Close to 8 in 10 women military spouses or partners (78.8%) held a postsecondary degree, compared with 65.8% of their counterparts in non-military couples. A similar trend was observed for men military spouses or partners, although to a lesser extent.

The employment rate of women military spouses or partners (75.6%) was slightly higher than that of women in non-military couples (73.8%). The employment rate of men military spouses or partners (84.2%) was comparable with that of men non-military spouses or partners (85.9%).

More than 1 in 10 active military families live in the Ottawa–Gatineau region

In 2021, the highest proportion of active military families lived in the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Ottawa–Gatineau (11.1%), which houses the National Defence Headquarters. In comparison, 7.8% of Veteran families and 3.8% of non-military families lived in the Ottawa–Gatineau region.

The next highest proportions of active military families were in the CMAs of Halifax (8.2%), Québec (7.6%) and Edmonton (5.7%), each of which have one military base. In comparison, the share of non-military families was 1.2% in Halifax, 2.2% in Québec and 3.7% in Edmonton.

Active military families have a much higher mobility rate than non-military families

Military personnel are often required to relocate on a recurring basis throughout their career to respond to organizational and operational needs. This is reflected in the mobility rate of military families compared with that of non-military families.

In 2021, nearly half (48.0%) of people in active military couples lived in a different Canadian city, town, township, village, municipality or Indian reserve than they did in 2016. This proportion was more than twice that of people in a Veteran couple (18.1%) or non-military couple (17.1%).

Similar trends were observed among one-parent military families. Among these families, more than one-third (36.4%) of serving parents lived in a different city in 2021 than they did five years earlier, compared with almost one in five Veteran families (18.8%) and almost one in six non-military families (15.9%).

Most of these relocations were within the same province or territory. However, a significant proportion of families moved interprovincially, that is, they lived in a different province or territory in 2021 than they did in 2016.

In 2021, almost one in four people (24.1%) in active military couples lived in a different province or territory than they did five years earlier, compared with 2.4% for people in non-military couples and 4.0% for people in Veteran couples. This proportion was even higher among dual-serving couples (35.2%).