Statistics Canada
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About families and households

Families are groups of persons within a household. There are two types of families: census families and economic families.

Census family refers to the married or common-law persons, including their children, or lone parent with at least one child, living in the same dwelling.

Economic family refers to the group of related persons (by blood or adoption, by marriage or common-law) who all live in the same dwelling.

Introduction to the family universe