Financial uncertainty, singlehood cited as reasons adults delay parenthood

TORONTO — A new poll suggests half of 18- to 50-year-olds in Canada who plan on having kids have delayed parenthood, with respondents citing reasons that include financial uncertainty, difficulties finding a partner and the cost of child care.

Researchers from Angus Reid Institute surveyed 1,300 child-free adults younger than 50 online between Sept. 12 and 18 about their plans for parenthood.

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The research comes on the heels of a Statistics Canada release showing the country’s fertility rate reached a new all-time low for the second consecutive year. The government agency announced late last month that the fertility rate was at 1.26 children per woman in 2023.

One in five respondents told the pollster they definitely plan on having at least one child, while one in three are considering it. Of those who plan to have a kid in the future — 689 respondents — 52 per cent said they would rather have had children already.

“One of the things that happens is we just keep delaying, and some of those people just never get around to having children,” said Dave Korzinski, research director at the Angus Reid institute. It’s important to understand and address their concerns, he added.

“So you could get that group in and start to boost up the fertility rate a little bit, even if you can’t convince the people who say it’s just not something that they want for their life.”

Two in five of the respondents who plan to become parents said they delayed having kids because of concerns around financial security, while a similar percentage said they were waiting for the right partner.

Two-thirds of the 487 adults who don’t plan on becoming parents say it’s “just not something (they) want” for their lives, while a quarter cited the cost of child care as a contributing factor.

“You need to have a population that is repleting the one that is aging out of the workforce,” Korzinski said.

That’s in part to keep the economy going, he said, but also it’s key for funding social programs for the elderly such as old age security and the Canada Pension Plan.

“The number of Canadians joining the 65-plus club is about six times higher than the number that are joining that zero to 14 population,” Korzinski said. “So we really are skewed to an older population right now, and it does create some challenges for ensuring that we can provide a satisfactory standard of living.”

Immigration is another way to address a shrinking workforce, but Korzinski pointed to a growing movement to limit the number of immigrants coming into Canada in a bid to curb the housing crisis. For instance, the federal government has promised to slash the number of international student visas it processes in the coming years.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press