FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 13, 2018

Despite an explosion in the number of dating apps available, including the newly launched Facebook Dating service, Canadian young adults appear to be finding it more difficult than ever to find life-long love. Living La Vida Lonely, a new Cardus analysis of census data, finds the proportion of Canadians aged 20 to 34 living without a life partner has reached a 20-year high of almost six in 10.

“The need for more education long after high school, student debt, unstable job markets, and sky-high housing costs could all be factors young adults putting off long-term committed relationships,” says Peter Jon Mitchell, author of Living La Vida Lonely and a senior researcher at think tank Cardus.

Even among those aged 25 to 34, it is more common to be neither married nor in a common-law relationship than it is to be married. That reality may not match what young adults actually want.

“According to an Angus Reid poll earlier this year, 54 percent of young adult Canadians say they would like to get married,” says Mitchell. “Still, marriage continues its long decline, outpacing even the increase in cohabitation. And that’s carried on into middle-age where marriage rates are at new lows.”

The overall story for Canadians aged 20 to 34 is that as marriage declines and common-law relationships rise, young adults are still increasingly living without any partner at all.

Click here to access Living La Vida Lonely online. 

To book an interview with Peter Jon Mitchell, please, contact Daniel Proussalidis.

MEDIA INQUIRIES
Daniel Proussalidis
Cardus – Director of Communications
613-241-4500 x508
dproussalidis@cardus.ca