The Recent Evolution of Fertility within Marriage and Consensual Union in Two Canadian Provinces: Disentangling the Quebec Fertility Paradox

Benoît Laplante, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS)
Ana Laura Fostik, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS)

In developed countries, fertility is usually assumed to be higher within marriage than within consensual union. In Canada, fertility is higher in Quebec, where consensual union is widespread, than in neighboring Ontario, where it is much less common. This paper looks into this paradox. We use census data and compute fertility measures within consensual union and within marriage among groups defined by province of residence, language and place of birth. We focus on the contribution of each form of union to age-specific fertility rates and to cumulative fertility. In all groups, ASR and TFR are higher within marriage than within consensual union, but among the Quebec French-speaking, the difference is concentrated at ages at which almost no women are married. More generally, comparison of fertility between marriage and consensual union should take into account the proportion of women who live in each form of union at each age.