Is monogamy on the wane in Canada?

A paper published in the Journal of Sex Research suggests that 12 percent of the population would like to be in open relationships, citing that as their "ideal relationship type".

An open relationship is defined individuals agreeing "to participate in sexual and/or emotional and romantic interactions with more than one partner".

The results were obtained from an online questionnaire of 2,003 Canadian adults conducted in 2017.

The lead author of the paper is Nichole Fairbrother, an assistant professor in UBC's School of Population and Public Health.

“Our findings suggest that more people would like to be in an open relationship than already are, possibly because of the stigma associated with these types of relationships and the difficulty of broaching this subject with partners,” Fairbrother said in a UBC news release. “Even with the stigma, however, it still appears that a sizeable number of Canadian adults are either in or would like to be in an open relationship.”

The paper noted that 2.4 percent of respondents are currently in an open relationship.

"Men, compared with women, were more likely to report prior open relationship engagement and to identify open as their ideal relationship type," the researchers stated in the abstract. "Younger participants were more likely both to engage in and to prefer open relationships."