2006 Census: Family portrait: Continuity and change in Canadian families and households in 2006: Provinces and territories

Newfoundland and Labrador: Highest proportion of young adults aged 20 to 29 living in the parental home

As was the case in 2001, Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest proportion in Canada of young adults in their twenties who lived in the parental home in 2006.

Over one-half of young adults aged 20 to 29 (52.2%) lived with their parents, much higher than the national average (43.5%). Young adults could be in the parental home for many reasons such as the pursuit of higher education, relationship break-up, delayed union formation, difficulty finding employment or other financial challenges.

The 2006 Census enumerated 155,700 census families in Newfoundland and Labrador. This was an increase of 0.9% from 2001, well below the national average growth of 6.3%. This slow growth in families may be due to the fact that fertility in Newfoundland and Labrador is the lowest in the country, averaging 1.3 children per woman since 1999.¹

Married couples represented 73.6% of all census families in 2006, the second highest proportion in Canada, behind Ontario (73.9%). Just over one in 10 census families were comprised of common-law couples (10.9%) and 15.5% were lone-parent families.

The census counted 197,200 private households in 2006, up 4.3% from 2001. During the same time period, the population in private households declined by 1.6%.

One-person households (+16.9%) and households comprised of couples without children (+14.6%) grew most rapidly during the intercensal period. In contrast, the number of households with couples and children decreased by 11.8%.

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