Canada’s foster children counted for first time in Statistics Canada

Some excerpts: “According to the latest census release from Statistics Canada, a total of 47,885 children were living in foster care in Canada in 2011.

Nationally, their numbers are small, accounting for just 0.5 per cent of children aged 14 and under. ”

“The majority of foster children – 29,590, or about 62 per cent – were aged 14 and under.

They were more likely to be living with couples, particularly married couples, with the proportion of children 14 and younger living in “out-of-home” care highest in Manitoba, followed by the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon.

The census doesn’t break down along aboriginal status. While there’s a higher proportion of aboriginal people in Manitoba and the North, “we can’t say that’s all among aboriginal children,” Badets said.

However, other national surveys have found that aboriginal children are tragically over-represented “at every point of contact in the child welfare system,” said Cindy Blackstock, of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. ”

“According to the census, a total of 17,410 households in Canada contained at least one foster child aged 14 and under in 2011. More than half – 57 per cent – were households with married couples; about 12 per cent were common-law couples and 14 per cent were lone-parent families.

Of the foster children counted, 8,590 were aged four and under; 11,455 were teens aged 15 to 19.”

Census 2011: Canada’s foster children counted for first time

[National Post 9/19/12 by Sharon Kirkey]

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