TORONTO -- The traditional family, made up of mom, dad and the kids, is still the most common, but its popularity is decreasing, Statistics Canada says. In 2001, married or common-law couples with children aged 24 and under living at home represented 44 per cent of Canadian families, down from 55 per cent in 1981. At the same time, couples with no children at home accounted for 41 per cent of families, up from 34 per cent two decade earlier.

The shift is due to declining fertility rates, delayed childbearing and a rise in the number of childless couples.

Doug Nicol, 41, and his partner have been a couple for more than five years. They have a nice home in Oak Ridges, about 40 minutes north of Toronto. They are both social people who balance their time between travel and their careers. While they are committed to each other, they have no plans to marry, let alone have children -- despite gentle pressure from their families.

When they first met, they talked about children and decided they weren't ready.

"We kept saying 'Let's wait a year . . . wait a year' and then we finally decided 'No, we're not going to have kids,' " said Nicol. "And I guess I thought in the back of my mind, if we did have kids, it would restrict us -- big time -- in our lifestyle in terms of the house I wanted to buy, the cars I have, the travelling I get to do, the dinners we get to go to.

"We don't feel a void that we don't have kids."

While most Canadians say they intend to have children, Nicol is one of the seven per cent who indicated in 2001 that children were not in their future. Statistics Canada never asked about children before the 2001 census, so it's not known whether the seven per cent is an increase or decrease.

"This is really just a picture of what it looked like this one year," said Susan Stobert, author of the Statistics Canada study Childfree by Choice. "It was a surprise to find how few young people don't intend to have a child, given the decline in fertility rates."

Stobert said the proportions are based on those aged 20-34, because after 34, declining fertility in women means being childless is determined less by choice alone.

Another twist on the traditional family is that one out of every 12 Canadians was living apart from a partner in 2001 -- most of them young adults, the report found.

In all, eight per cent of the population aged 20 and over were part of such relationships, said Statistics Canada.

While most of those living apart from a partner, 56 per cent, were in their 20s, 19 per cent were in their 30s, 14 per cent in their 40s and 11 per cent were 50 and over.

The survey found that 36 per cent of those living apart lived with their parents.

Patrick Cutri, 34, plans to put an end to his long-distance relationship. For the last eight months, he has lived in a Toronto home he owns with his father, while his fiancee has lived with her folks in Montreal.

While the hour-long, daily phone calls and the visits three times a month are perfectly romantic, Cutri wants more. The couple mean to wed later this year and live under one roof in Toronto.

"Long-distance relationships depend on perspective. Montreal is only four hours away by train. It is tedious, but when you look at the overall picture the challenges become minute," said Cutri. "At first you think 'I can't do this every weekend,' but, you know, the things you think are big problems in the beginning, you don't even think about them later.

"If two people love each other they'll do whatever it takes to make it work."

Like Cutri, many Canadians in relationships that involve temporarily living apart see it as a precursor to marriage; for others, careers mean that their living-apart unions may be more permanent. About half of those currently living apart from their partners expect to live in common law with them in the future.

In fact, 16 per cent of all couples were common-law in 2001, up from six per cent in 1981. That's higher than the U.S. common-law rate (eight per cent), but less than Sweden (30 per cent) and Norway (24 per cent). The trend was strongest in Quebec, where 30 per cent of couples were common-law.