Religious Commitment and Marital Status

For the first time, Statistics Canada's National Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating for the year 2000 allows one to examine religious commitment for the married, common-law, widowed, separated, divorced and single populations. Data for the common-law, separated and divorced populations, together with religious commitment indicators, have not previously been available. One might suppose that the common-law population would have relatively low religious commitment because of religious teachings contrary to such living arrangements, but how much lower is the degree of commitment? Are there more people living common-law among the non-religious populations and more liberal religious denominations such as Anglican and United? Is the religious commitment of the common-law population higher in the liberal denominations than in the conservative traditions because of greater acceptance? Are there more French Catholics living common-law than other Catholics because religious commitment is lower? How does the divorced population differ from the separated population in terms of commitment? The married and widowed populations would be expected to have the highest rates of religious commitment, since they are an older population with perhaps greater need for spiritual comfort and direction, but how different are they from the married, common-law and separated and divorced populations? The single, never married population would be expected to have low religious commitment, because it is a relatively young population, but is the commitment for this group lower than that of the common-law and separated and divorced populations? These are some of the questions that occurred to us when we saw the availability of this new data.

The answers to these questions appear in the tables and charts below. The first table shows the distribution of the population by marital status and religious affiliation. According to this survey the married population, 53% of Canadians aged 15 and over, is the largest. It is especially well represented in the liberal and conservative Christian populations, at over 60%. The single, never married population, almost half as large, accounts for 26% of the total population, and the non-religious and non-Christian populations account for the relatively high levels of 35% and 33%, respectively. The common-law population is next largest, making up 9% of the Canadian population, with the relatively high percentage of 20% among French Catholics. The rate for liberal and conservative Christians living common-law is similar: 5% and 4% respectively. The other marital statuses are relatively uncommon: widowed, 5%, divorced, 4% and separated, 2%. Widows/widowers are especially common in the United Church, making up 12% of that population, while the separated and divorced populations range from 2% to 6% of the various faith communities.

As expected, the common-law population is relatively uncommitted to religion. Only 7% attend religious services weekly, compared with 20% to 23% of the single, separated, and divorced populations, 29% of the married population, and 39% of the widowed population - Table 2 and Chart 1. In an analysis, results of which are available on request, the frequency of attendance at religious services is lower among liberal Protestants than non-Christians, conservative Christians, and French and other Catholics, lower among the divorced/separated population and common-law population than the married, lower among the married than the widowed, higher with age, higher for women than men, higher among those with a university degree compared with those with less education, and higher in Quebec than the other four regions of Canada.

Only 4% of the common-law population say they are very religious, compared with 9% of the single population, 12% to 14% of the married, separated and divorced populations, and 19% of the widowed – Table 3 and Chart 2. Many more of the common-law population say they are somewhat religious, 33%, but that is still less than the singles, 36%, separated, divorced and married populations, 43% to 49%, and the widowed, 60%.

The potential regular attenders at religious services may be defined as the religious population that does not attend religious services regularly (at least monthly). This population is smallest among singles, 16% of all singles - Table 4. About one in five married, common-law, widowed and separated persons are potential attenders. Potential attenders are most common among the divorced population, comprising more than one in four, or 27% of the total. In an analysis, available on request, potential regular attenders are more likely to be liberal Protestants than conservative and non-Christians, French and other Catholics, to be younger, separated/divorced or common-law rather than married, married rather than widowed, to be non-university graduates rather than graduates, and to live in Quebec or the Atlantic region rather than British Columbia.

Potential dropouts from regular attendance may be defined as the non-religious population that attends religious services regularly. Potential dropouts are rare in the population - only 3% of the married, divorced, and widowed populations, 2% of the singles, and too rare in the sample to be reported for the common-law and separated populations.

The detail of marital status is unavailable in most survey sources. The present study finds that the common-law population should be distinguished from the married population in studies of religious commitment, owing to its much lower level of commitment than the married population with which it is usually grouped. Distinguishing the separated from the divorced population would not appear to be particularly important for the purposes of religious commitment studies.

Frank Jones, (fjones@uottawa.ca).

(The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of Statistics Canada)