Is Love in the Air?
February 9, 2023
One of the perks of working at a polling firm is the ability to ask questions about anything. This gives us a unique lens into Canadians’ thoughts on a number of important issues, but also things like when it’s socially appropriate to move in together or meet the parents.
For Valentine’s Day this year, we explored some of these more light-hearted questions.
First up is what we are planning to do this Valentine’s Day. Among Canadians who are in relationships, 64% are planning to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year. Most are choosing to mark the day with a dinner or other date, a third are exchanging cards and gifts.
Beyond celebrating Valentine’s Day, what about other relationship milestones? How long should you wait before saying ‘I love you’, or moving in together? It turns out there isn’t much consensus.
How long should you wait before saying ‘I love you’? 26% say less than a month, 27% say 1-3 months, 22% say 4-6 months.
What about meeting their family? Half say this should happen by your three-month anniversary.
And most Canadians say you should move in and get engaged within 1-2 years.
Finally, a few more thoughts on love.
Half of Canadians believe in finding ‘the one’, on par with our results from last year. Conservatives are much more likely to believe in this idea, NDP voters are much less likely.
Love doesn’t always mean marriage though. 42% say marriage is really important to them, 28% say maybe, and 30% say not at all. Interestingly, there are no discernable differences between age groups or gender.
What about those of us who are still single? A few years ago, singlism was a popular phrase. The term, coined by a proudly single author, is used to describe society’s favouritism towards individuals in relationships.
A good number of Canadians believe this phenomenon exists- 31% say yes, 38% say maybe. Unsurprisingly, single people are more inclined to say singlism exists (40% say yes).
THE UPSHOT
All in all, it seems like Canadians are cautiously optimistic about love. A majority of those in relationships will be marking the holiday of love with a celebration of some sort. And regardless of relationship status, most of us believe in the concept of true love, at least somewhat.
METHODOLOGY
The survey was conducted with 1,500 Canadian adults from January 27 to 30, 2023. A random sample of panelists were invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. These partners are typically double opt-in survey panels, blended to manage out potential skews in the data from a single source.
The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 2.6%, 19 times out of 20.
The data were weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender, educational attainment, and region. Totals may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Abacus Data follows the CRIC Public Opinion Research Standards and Disclosure Requirements that can be found here: https://canadianresearchinsightscouncil.ca/standards/
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