Vital Statistics - Divorce Database

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: 1969

Reference period of change - 2020

Activity on this statistical program resumes under a pilot project. In 2022, new data are released for the reference years 2009 to 2020 as well as revised data for 1970 to 2008.

Between 2008 and 2020, the CRDP database on which this program is based as well as the processing done at Statistics Canada underwent several changes.

Data sources - Registration form (2013):

Following amendments to the Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings Regulations on September 30, 2013, the amount of information collected from the courts by the CRDP was reduced. Items that are no longer collected include: reasons for marriage breakdown, legal marital status at the time of marriage, date of separation, number of dependents, and child custody orders. Moreover, all information about these items that was held in CRDP databases for divorces granted before 2013 was removed.

The same set of amendments to the Regulations opened the door for the CRDP to move from a mandatory paper form to electronic transfer when collecting information from the courts. All provinces and territories have made this move in subsequent years, but at different times.

Data sources - Sex in Ontario records (2018):

Following changes in the mode of information transmission from courts in Ontario to the CRDP in 2018, the sex of spouses is missing in a majority of new records from that province in subsequent years.

Methodology - Edits and imputation:

Missing values and values with incoherent dates are now imputed. This applies to the new data for 2009 to 2020 as well as to revised data for 1970 to 2008. In general, imputation affects a very small number of records annually.

Reference period of change - 2008

In 2011, following the dissemination of divorce data for the reference years 2006 to 2008, the vital statistics program on divorces was discontinued.

Reference period of change - 2005

Data sources - Same-sex marriages and divorces:

Following provincial court rulings in 2003, vital statistics registries in Ontario and British Columbia began registering marriages of same-sex couples. In 2004, subsequent rulings by courts in five provinces (Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador) and one territory (Yukon) expanded the number of jurisdictions registering same-sex marriages. A court ruling in New Brunswick allowed same-sex marriages a month before federal legislation legalized same-sex marriages across Canada, on July 20, 2005.

To enable the recording of same-sex divorces, amendments to the Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings Regulations were made on October 25, 2005. References to "husband" and "wife" were removed from the form used to report divorce proceedings to the CRDP and a sex variable was added. Each spouse can now be identified as "male" or "female".

Data sources - Other changes to the CRDP form:

With the same amendments, additional items were added to the form used by the CRDP (e.g., province of residence at the time of divorce) but this had no effect on the 2005 divorce data.

Reference period of change - 2004

Data sources - Reason for marriage breakdown:

Only one reason for marriage breakdown was captured by the system in 2004 and 2005. While multiple reasons may have been cited when the application was made, only one was retained in the system (see below for accepted reasons for marriage breakdown).

1986

Data sources - Grounds for divorce:

Under the Divorce Act of 1985, which came into force in 1986, the grounds for divorce changed from the previous Divorce Act of 1968. Marriage breakdown became the only grounds for divorce, and the evidence for marriage breakdown was reduced to separation for at least one year, adultery, physical cruelty, or mental cruelty. Additionally, both spouses could now apply jointly for divorce. In cases where couples file a joint application, the only valid category is separation for at least one year.

Under the Divorce Act of 1968, there were several marital offences (adultery; physical cruelty; mental cruelty; sodomy; bestiality; rape; homosexual act; and subsequent marriage) and reasons for marriage breakdown (addiction to alcohol; separation for not less than 3 years; desertion by petitioner not less than 5 years; imprisonment for aggregate period of not less than 3 years; imprisonment for not less than 2 years, sentence of death, or sentences of 10 years or more; addiction to narcotics; whereabouts of spouse unknown; non-consummation), one or more of which constituted grounds for divorce.