Départ Des Enfants Et Contraction Des Familles D'Après Les Recensements Canadiens De 1971 Et De 1981

Censuses do not usually collect information on the departure of children and the consequent contraction of the family; however, they sometimes do include useful information on these phenomena and their evolution. On these questions this article presents a new use of the 1971 and 1981 Canadian censuses. From the analysis, it is estimated that the timing of children's departure from their family of origin was almost the same in 1981 as in 1971; median age at departure was identical: 20.5 for women and 22.3 for men. Broken families, more numerous than in the past, become contracted earlier than unbroken families; among unbroken families, the contraction phase started earlier in 1981 than in 1971 among large or medium-sized families while it began later among small families. The method developed here succeeds with the Canadian data in palliating the lack of surveys; it would be interesting to test it on data from other Western societies.