In 2021, 2.4 million people in Canada lived in a multigenerational household, and 7.1 million people lived in an intergenerational household, according to new studies Statistics Canada released Thursday.
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A multigenerational household is composed of three or more generations of the same family.
The prevalence of multigenerational living in 2021 varied considerably across the country. While 24.9% of people in Nunavut lived in a multigenerational household, this was the case for just 3.1% of people living in Quebec.
Over half (52.7%) of people in multigenerational households were racialized and 40.5% were born outside of Canada. This is compared to 24.7% racialized and 25.5% born outside of Canada among people living in another type of household.
Multigenerational living was most prevalent among people of South Asian ethnic or cultural origin. More than one-third of people with a Sikh (36.6%) or Punjabi (34.2%) ethnic or cultural origin lived in a multigenerational household.
Intergenerational households
An intergenerational household is composed of parents and their adult children aged 20 years and older without any additional generations present.
Young adults pursuing post-secondary studies can save on living costs when living in their parental home. More than two-fifths (47.5%) of people aged20to34years who were attending school lived with their parents in an intergenerational household.
Adult children may also live with parents if they are unemployed or underemployed. A lower proportion of those aged 20 to 54 living with their parents were employed compared to those living in other types of households.
On the flip side, retirement-aged parents living with their adult children may continue to be employed to support their children financially. Among people aged 50 to 69 years in 2021, employment rates were higher among those who were parents in intergenerational households than among people living in other types of households.
The largest differences were for people aged 65 to 69 years, where 32% of parents in intergenerational households were employed compared with 24.6% of people with other living arrangements.