73% of Canadians say ‘many’ stay in relationships for finances: survey

A newly released survey by H&R Block Canada suggests that financial circumstances can be part of why Canadians stay in relationships.

The data found that 73 per cent of Canadians believe that “many people stay together in marriage or in common law relationships for financial reasons.”

In addition, 80 per cent of Canadians say life is more affordable in a relationship versus being single.

Nearly one in four (23 per cent) of surveyed Canadians also said they like the idea of a “five-year renewable relationship contract” instead of getting married.

The survey states that four in 10 Canadians (40 per cent) say marriage is “mainly about practicalities for those planning or already have children.”

This view is higher among Canadians who identify as male (at 45 per cent) versus female (36 per cent).

In addition, 83 per cent believe that couples often stay together for the sake of their children.

Clay Jarvis, a financial expert at NerdWallet Canada, said marriage is a “major financial decision” that should encourage couples to evaluate their financial situations.

“I think if the conversation is about determining whether to have kids because you can afford them now, I think that’s because your reality now is what you’re basing all of your decisions on,” he said. “You don’t know where your career is going to be, if you’re going to have your job two, three, five years from now.

“To think, ‘Well I’m going to need to be spending thousands of dollars on diapers over the next few years or baby food or we need to get a bigger house, or we needed to buy a car,’ all of those things add up.”

A September 2025 Statistics Canada study reported that Canada’s total fertility rate was 1.25 children per woman in 2024, a record low.

The survey also found that over a quarter of Canadians (27 per cent) say, “if they won the lottery and had a partner, they’d likely split up with their partner.”

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More than half of Canadians (57 per cent) were found to believe married or common law couples “get more tax advantages than single Canadians,” with 63 per cent saying, “there should be more tax breaks for single Canadians who don’t get to share expenses with a partner.”

Jarvis said that while there are “a lot of benefits to being common law or married,” this does not apply to everyone.

“It’s not really something that’s going to make a huge difference for especially a lot of young couples,” he said. “A lot of these benefits, they’re like sharing medical expenses and donations, we’re transferring unused credits around, pension income or disability tax credits you know things related to RSPs.

“If people believe that if you get married, all of a sudden, things are going to be easy for you when it comes to tax time, I think that’s just a really distorted and maybe naïve way of looking at it.”

Sixty-two per cent of Canadians also say they would “be happy to sign a prenuptial agreement if their partner was wealthier or had a much higher income.”

Twenty-five per cent of Canadians disagreed.

The survey also found that over a quarter of Canadians (27 per cent) say “if they won the lottery and had a partner, they’d likely split up with their partner.”

“You might sign a prenup because your parents gifted you a down payment for a house and they don’t want this partner that they don’t know as well to walk away with half of the house that they help pay for,” Jarvis said.

“There are practical guardrails that a prenup can provide for a relationship. It’s not just about walking away with a bag of money.”

A February 2026 TD Bank survey reported that “more than half (51 per cent) of Gen Z Canadians say they’d want their partner to sign a prenup if they got married or entered a common-law relationship.”

This number was found to be significantly higher than the national average of 28 per cent.

Jarvis said it is important to relay any “stresses and concerns” about finances as decisions surrounding finances grow.

“To be able to do that openly and constructively, it … peels away a layer from relationships that generally cause people a lot of stress and a lot of pain,” he said.

“I think being open and honest is the best thing you can do because then if there are issues related to your finances, you can tackle them together rather than putting up some sort of defensive wall between you and your partner, that’s just going to make things more difficult down the road.”