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April 25, 2019POPULATION BY MARITAL STATUS FOR JULY 1, 2018 Statistics Canada has released details on Nova Scotia's population by marital status, including historical revisions and new data for July 1, 2018.
The population can be broken down into six categories of marital status: single, married, separated, living common-law, widowed and divorced.
Of the 959,942 residents estimated for Nova Scotia as of July 1, 2018 the largest numbers are either married (374,557) or single (363,320). Note that this includes all ages, so younger residents are all counted as 'single'. There are a further 89,579 persons living in a common-law arrangement. Almost 54,000 Nova Scotians are widowed and a disproportionate number of these are women. There are 27,302 Nova Scotians who are separated and 51,247 who are divorced.
The widowed population is rising faster than those in other marital status categories - increasing by 2.7 per cent from July 1, 2017 to July 1, 2018. Although women represent the largest group of widowed persons, the number of men who are widowed is rising more quickly (3.5 per cent).
Martial status is variable by age - with younger populations reporting a higher proportion who are single or living in a common law arrangement. Older populations report higher shares who are married, divorced or widowed.
Compared with the national average, a lower portion of Nova Scotia's population is single while higher proportions are married, separated, divorced or widowed. This is consistent with Nova Scotia's older demographic profile.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 17-10-0060-01 Estimates of population as of July 1st, by marital status or legal marital status, age and sex
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