1286.0 - Family, Household and Income Unit Variables, 2005  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 01/06/2005   
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Contents >> Registered marital status >> Classification and coding

THE CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA

19. The four criteria used in classifying persons to the classification are:

  • whether he or she is now, or has been in a registered marriage
  • whether his or her most recent registered marriage partner is still living
  • whether she or he remains legally married to her or his most recent registered marriage partner
  • his or her living arrangements with his or her most recent registered marriage partner

20. Partners in a registered marriage must be of the opposite-sex as same-sex couples cannot, under Australian law, be registered as married or hold a marriage certificate with each other.


THE STANDARD CLASSIFICATION AND CODE STRUCTURE

21. The standard classification is a single-level classification with the following five categories and code structure:

1 Never Married
2 Widowed
3 Divorced
4 Separated
5 Married

Residual categories and codes

22. Not applicable.

Supplementary codes

23. The following supplementary code is used to code non-responses:

0 Not stated


SCOPE OF THE CLASSIFICATION

24. The 'Registered marital status' classification applies to all persons aged fifteen years and over.


APPLICATION OF THE CLASSIFICATION TO OTHER VARIABLES

25. In addition to 'Registered marital status', the classification can be cross classified with 'Social marital status' where both have been collected. Care should be taken to ensure that labels and footnotes clearly differentiate the two categories. Recommendations for the output structure of this cross classification are provided in the Output section of this standard.


CODING PROCEDURES

26. 'Registered marital status' is self-coded to the classification.

27. In self-coded questions the categories of the classification are presented as 'tick-box' options, and each of the possible responses is assigned a numerical code.



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