The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the fewest divorces in Canada since 1973, but according to Statistics Canada, that low figure may be tied to public health measures.
And 2021 could paint a different picture as the court system catches up, the agency said.
In a new report on divorce statistics from the last 50 years, StatCan said barriers to accessing court services because of the pandemic likely contributed to a "sharp decrease" in divorce applications and granted divorces in 2020 from 2019.
In 2020, 42,933 couples divorced, compared to 56,937 couples in 2019.
StatCan said divorces in Canada have generally been declining, but said this year-over-year difference of 25 per cent marked the biggest drop since the Divorce Act was established in 1968.
Canadians have lived with various and often stringent public health measures since early 2020, and these were likely drivers of the reduced divorce rate, StatCan said. Lockdowns slowed court proceedings and led to less urgent cases being adjourned, while some courts closed temporarily.
The data from 2020 may only tell part of the picture, however. StatCan said in the case of a "no-fault" divorce, which is traditionally most divorces in Canada, couples must be apart for a year before a divorce is granted.
But social and economic disruptions keeping people at home may have led to fewer couples seeking a divorce, StatCan said, and the full impact of those disruptions on divorce rates may not be seen until at least 2021.
The pandemic hasn't been the only contributing factor to a dropping divorce rate. StatCan said there are two other main factors: an aging married population and a lowering tendency among young married adults to divorce.
Young Canadians are more often choosing common-law unions over marriages, according to the data, and those who do marry are doing so at an older age than generations before. StatCan also said older adults generally divorce less frequently than younger adults.
However, divorce rates among younger adults have also declined.
StatCan said this has translated into a steady decline in annual divorces between 1991 and 2020, from about 12.7 per 1,000 married persons to 7.5 per 1,000 in 2019 and 5.6 per 1,000 in 2020.
StatCan said the drop in divorces was universal across provinces and territories, but said it was most apparent in Ontario, which saw 36 per cent fewer divorces in 2020 compared to 2019.
New Brunswick reported the lowest change, with an 11 per cent year-over-year decrease, while divorce rates in the territories remained stable, StatCan said.
However, looking ahead, StatCan said the number of divorces in 2021 will depend on how the pandemic continued to affect married couples and whether the family court system was able to process divorces at pre-pandemic levels or to catch up on delayed divorces from 2020.
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