填空题 Despite recent increases in common-law unions, marriage continues to form the foundation for most Canadian families. Statistics Canada researchers say that in 2010, about 1 were headed by married couples. The average age for first marriages 2 for both brides and grooms. In 2008, first-time brides were 31.7 years old, while grooms proclaimed their first marriage vows at an average age of 3 .
Only two decades earlier, women and men were 25.9 and 28.5 years old, respectively, when 4 . Statistics Canada attributes the change to 5 and the growing popularity of common-law unions.
The number of couples forgoing marriage 6 since 1988, the first time the statistic was tallied. At the time, there were 357,000 7 —about six per cent of all couples. By the 2010 Census, roughly 8 were common law. Common-law unions 9 among young people and couples living in Quebec, where 10 of all families are common law.
Common-law unions tend to be 11 , though they often transform into marriage. However, those marriages break up far more frequently than 12 common-law relationships.
With 13 in 1968, grounds for divorce were extended to include "no-fault" divorce based on 14 ; in 1986, the separation period was revised to one year.
Within a decade of the introduction of the Divorce Act, 15 , that is, the percentage of marriages that dissolved in the previous 30-year period, 16 of all marriages in 1969 to 30 per cent in 1975. The total crude divorce rate 17 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1987. The divorce rate 18 was 231 per 100,000 inhabitants. Statistics Canada figures from 2008 show the number of Canadians 19 is on the rise. Researchers found the number of marriage breakups involving husbands who have been divorced at least once 20 .