Wedding planners, beware: your career could get a little more challenging in the near future.
According to a recent poll by Angus Reid, less than half (47 per cent) of Canadians believe legal marriage is important for couples who want to spend the rest of their lives together.
Predictably, support for marriage is lower among younger people. Nearly three-quarters of 18-34-year-olds (73%) have never been married, and one-in-six in this group say they’re not particularly inclined to – ever.
In fact, the number of young people married has declined by almost two-thirds in the last 45 years (56 per cent in 1971):
Considering the price of life (see: rent and gas prices) in Canadian cities, ain’t nobody got money for marriage.
Speaking of finance, the majority of those surveyed believe marriage shouldn’t come with certain monetary benefits.
“Canadians favour treating marriages and common-law relationships identically when it comes to taxation and assets, with majorities saying those who legally marry should not get extra tax benefits (59% say this) and that those in common-law relationships should divide assets equally when the relationship ends (58% say this),” reads the report.
Some more interesting findings:
- – On the topic of religion, Canadians reject the notion that a religious wedding is more ‘legitimate’ than a civil one (76% disagree with a statement to this effect), but most of those who have walked down the aisle in their lives did so at a religious service.
- – Six-in-ten (60%) have been married at some point, and 43 per cent are married currently.
- – While never-married Canadians have many different reasons for their current marital status, the most common one is that they just haven’t found the right person yet.
- – Young men who have never been married, especially, are inclined to feel inhibited by a lack of funds. Nearly half of them (47%) list not being financially stable as a “major reason” for not being married.