BC Council for Families

More than 340,000 children in Canada are growing up in mixed-race families, a new report from Statistics Canada reveals, and the number of mixed unions is increasing much more quickly than that of other partnerships. The report, "A Portrait of Couples in Mixed Unions," found there were 289,400 mixed unions in 2006, up 33.1 per cent from 2001. Mixed union couples represent 3.9 per cent of the 7,482,800 married and common-law couples across the country.


The growing numbers of mixed ethnocultural unions mean five per cent of children in two-parent families in Canada now live in diverse households, said Anne Milan, senior analyst and co-author of the report. "There's close to 294,000 children that have mixed-union parents," she notes.


More couples with at least one child living at home were in mixed unions, compared to couples who did not have children.. "This reflects the fact that people in mixed unions were younger and, therefore, more likely to be at their life-cycle stage of having young children at home," said the study.

• Mixed unions were most common in the 25-to-34 age group (6.8 per cent), followed by people aged 15 to 24 (5.8 per cent).

• British Columbia has the largest proportion of mixed couples, at 5.9 per cent,

The report concludes that “The impact of mixed unions could be far-reaching in changing the dynamic and nature of Canada’s ethnocultural diversity in future generations. .. Mixed unions may create a culturally diverse environment within the family. Cultural practices within the family can impact the children. As the proportion of mixed unions increases in Canada, the implications may extend beyond the couples to the children’s sense of identity.”