November 24th, 2008, 2 Comments »
A while back I subscribed to the RSS feed for Statistics Canada. As you might imagine, the agency produces statistics and reports on a wide and occasionally bizarre array of stuff–fertilizer shipments, iron piping and so forth. As you know, these reports are regular fodder for journalists (and, uh, bloggers) hunting for low-hanging trend stories.
Today Statistics Canada released data on divorces across the country in 2005 (the newest year available, presumably). Using their handy data manipulation tool, I generated this chart:
So which province has the highest divorce rate? As you can see, it’s Alberta. I’m ignoring the northern territories, because the sample size is pretty small (Nunavut suffered all of 10 divorces in 2005).
What gives? Why are there 27% more divorces per capita in Alberta than in Saskatchewan? Is this like the US, where so-called conservative red states have a considerably higher incidence of divorce than blue states?
Here’s one thesis: people marry younger in Alberta, and the younger you marry, the likelier you are to get divorced. That’s disproven, though, because Saskatchewan has the lowest marriage age (27 for women, 29.3 for men) in the country as well as a low divorce rate.
2 Comments »
November 18th, 2008, 16 Comments »
A while back I subscribed to the RSS feed for Statistics Canada. As you might imagine, the agency produces statistics and reports on a wide and occasionally bizarre array of stuff–fertilizer shipments, iron piping and so forth. As you know, these reports are regular fodder for journalists (and, uh, bloggers) hunting for low-hanging trend stories.
Today Statistics Canada released data on divorces across the country in 2005 (the newest year available, presumably). Using their handy data manipulation tool, I generated this chart:
So which province has the highest divorce rate? As you can see, it’s Alberta. I’m ignoring the northern territories, because the sample size is pretty small (Nunavut suffered all of 10 divorces in 2005).
Is Alberta a Red State?
What gives? Why are there 27% more divorces per capita in Alberta than in Saskatchewan? Is this like the US, where so-called conservative red states have a considerably higher incidence of divorce than blue states?
Here’s one thesis: people marry younger in Alberta, and the younger you marry, the likelier you are to get divorced. That’s disproved, though, because Saskatchewan has the lowest marriage age (27 for women, 29.3 for men) in the country as well as a low divorce rate. That’s the red state theory–earlier marriages combined with lower socio-economic standing and less education. Stereotypes aside, I don’t think those factors apply to Alberta.
Here’s another idea that sounds plausible: compared to other provinces, Alberta has a low immigration rate. New Canadians, particularly those from Asia, are less likely to divorce.
Why do you think Alberta has the country’s highest rate of divorce?
Incidentally, while looking through some Statistics Canada research, I found this chart. The rate of divorce is apparently highest for those married about 4.5 years. After that there’s a long decline (to quote Neil Young). Once you hit 40 years of marriage, your odds of divorce are roughly two in 1000.
16 Comments »
July 7th, 2007, 4 Comments »
Like divorce and abortion, possession of pornography is illegal in Malta. I learned this through a brief, grisly article in The Malta Times:
The brothers, aged 41 and 43, pleaded not guilty to defiling their relative, holding her against her will and causing her to fear them on and before July this year. They were also charged with the possession of pornographic material and offending public morals. They were denied bail at this stage.
Ruling Out Foul Play
I first read the article because the headline made use of an unusual term: “Brothers charged with defiling niece”. I’ve noticed that Maltese newspapers tread carefully around subjects like sex and suicide.
Another example is this article, “Man killed by single gunshot – autopsy“. The article reports that “police have ruled out foul play”. Huh? A guy gets shot and there’s no foul play. It took me a little while to figure it out.
There’s no mention of it, but this is the apparently meant to imply that the man committed suicide. Malta is the most Catholic country in the world, so I suppose you’d expect that sex and suicide would be fairly taboo.
To return to illegal activities, for some reason the fact that porn is illegal is weirder than divorce or abortion. Abortion is naturally contentious across the globe. Divorce isn’t that strange to me because, when I lived in Dublin, I learned that divorce had only been legalized there 11 years ago. I do recall that they had nudie magazines in the local SPAR, though.
Anyone With a Libido
After all, I come from a continent where the porn industry is a (estimates seem to vary widely) at least a US $5 billion industry, and where pornography is marketed not only to young men, but to women, senior citizens and everybody else with a libido. And I recently happened to visit Budapest, the reputed European capital of the porn industry. It was just a two-hour flight away.
Here’s how the laws on the books read:
For the purpose of sub-article (3) of article 208 of the Criminal Code, an article shall be deemed to be pornographic or obscene if -
(a) its dominant characteristic is the exploitation of, or undue emphasis on, sex, or any one of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence; or
(b) it directly or indirectly advertises or gives information on any article considered to be pornographic or obscene under these Regulations:
Provided that an article shall not be considered to be pornographic or obscene to the extent that it serves the public good on the ground that it is in the interests of science, literature, art or
learning or other objects of general concern.
That’s a pretty broad definition of pornography. I’m surprised that I can buy Stephen King books in the local bookstores.
Ah well, I don’t think I’ll write a letter to the paper about that. I’m better off railing against the shameful hunting of birds into extinction, instead.
4 Comments »
