OTTAWA - Highlights from the latest release of data from the 2011 Canadian census, focused on families and living arrangements:

— Canada home to 9,389,700 "census families" — married or common-law couples, or single parents — in 2011, 5.5 per cent more than in 2006.

— For the first time, there were more common-law couples in Canada — 16.7 per cent of all census families — than single-parent families, at 16.3 per cent.

— Same-sex marriage nearly tripled between 2006 and 2011 as same-sex couples grew by 42.4 per cent. Same-sex common-law couples grew 15 per cent, compared with 13.8 per cent for opposite-sex common-law couples.

— Common-law couples increased 13.9 per cent between 2006 and 2011, compared with 3.1 per cent for married couples over the same time period.

— Single fathers grew by 16.2 per cent, compared with six per cent for single mothers, as lone-parent families grew eight per cent since 2006. Single mothers still comprise 80 per cent of single-parent families.

— Stepfamilies, counted for the first time in 2011, comprised 12.6 per cent of Canada's 3.7 million couples with children. Nearly 60 per cent were "simple" stepfamilies — families in which the children are the biological or adopted offspring of only one parent.

— The census counted 29,590 foster children aged 14 and under living in private households.

— Ten per cent of all children aged 14 or under living in private households were members of a stepfamily.

— The number of couples without children at home (44.5 per cent) continued to outpace those couples with kids living at home (39.2 per cent).

More on the census data is available with an overview here and a look at issues with counting gay married couples here.

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