Marital Status, 1996: Widowed

In 1996, there were 1.5 million widowed persons in Canada, accounting for 6.4% of the Canadian population 15 years of age and older. The province of Saskatchewan is an exception, with the highest proportion of widowed persons in Canada (7.6%). The widowed population are spread over much of this region, particularly in the small towns. This is primarily due to the fairly high rates of migration of working-age adults to the other provinces. In Alberta, the situation is completely different. Alberta has the smallest proportion of widowed persons of all the provinces (5.2%). This is due to Alberta’s having one of the highest fertility rates, as well as to the economic prosperity of the 1970s, which attracted young adults from other provinces. In the Northwest Territories, the proportion of widowed persons was much smaller than in all the other provinces (3.1%).