The number of single parents in Canada has risen dramatically in the last 20 years, up 70 percent from 1981 to 2001, Statistics Canada said in a report Tuesday.

Overall, 550,000 single women between the ages of 25 and 54 were raising children 18 and younger on their own in 2001, said the report entitled "Education and Income of Lone Parents."

The number of single fathers doubled from 62,000 in 1981 to 119, 000 in 2001, accounting for one-sixth of all lone-parent families countrywide.

The report found that while single women's real annual earnings increased by 35 percent, average annual earnings for single fathers fell 7.3 percent.

But the traditional gender-based pay disparity remains, with single fathers now earning an average income of 38,000 Canadian dollars (32,300 U.S. dollars) compared to single mothers' average earnings of just 19,900 Canadian dollars (16,900 U.S. dollars).

More single mothers are, though, now able to go further in school than their counterparts 20 years earlier. While 46 percent of single mothers had not completed high school in 1981, by 2001 the proportion had plunged to 22 percent, noted the report.

Source: Xinhua