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 >> Social marital status >> Classification and coding

THE CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA

15. Three classification criteria are used to form the categories of the classification:

  • whether a person is living with a partner in a couple relationship
  • whether a person is living with a partner in a registered marriage, and
  • whether a person in a couple relationship is living with a person of the same sex.

16. Persons who live in such unions are classified as 'married'.

17. At the more detailed level, those persons who are defined as 'married' are further disaggregated according to whether their relationship to their partner is through a registered marriage or through a de facto marriage.

Application of the criteria

18. These criteria are applied to each person's couple relationship status to produce the major categories of the 'Social marital status' classification as defined below:

Married: a person who is living with another person in a couple relationship. This relationship is either a registered marriage, or a de facto marriage.

Not married: a person who is not living with another person in a couple relationship. This includes persons who live alone, or with other family members, and those in shared accommodation; it also includes persons who are in a registered marriage or in a de facto marriage, but whose partners are not usually resident in the household.

Married in a registered marriage: a person who lives with another person in a couple relationship and this relationship is a registered marriage.

In practice, a person is classified to this category if his or her relationship to another person (of the opposite sex) usually resident in the same household is husband, wife or spouse, and the 'Registered marital status' of both partners (if also asked in the collection) is married.

Married in a de facto marriage: a person who lives with another person in a couple relationship and this relationship is not a registered marriage.

In practice, a de facto marriage exists between a couple of opposite sex when the two people are usual residents in the same household and their relationship is partner, de facto, common law husband/wife/spouse, lover, boyfriend, girlfriend or when their relationship is husband, wife or spouse and the 'Registered marital status' of one or both partners (if also asked in the collection) is a category other than married.

A de facto marriage exists between a couple of the same sex when the two people are usual residents in the same household and their relationship is husband, wife, spouse, partner, de facto, common law husband/wife/spouse, lover or boyfriend. The term girlfriend should not be used as an indication of a de facto marriage between two females who are usual residents in the same household.

Traditional Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin marriages

19. The ABS recommends that partners in traditional Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander marriages should be coded as Married in a registered marriage even though traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander marriages are not registrable marriages under the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961. This should not be a significant statistical issue for most collections.


THE STANDARD CLASSIFICATION AND CODE STRUCTURE

20. The 'Social marital status' classification is a four level hierarchical structure. The one digit level is referred to as the broad level. The second level (two digit) is referred to as the detailed level. The subsequent third and fourth levels are referred to as further disaggregations of the detailed level. The classification is as follows:
1Married
10Married (not further defined)
11Married in a registered marriage
12Married in a de facto marriage
15Married in a de facto marriage, opposite sex couple
16Married in a de facto marriage, same-sex couple
17Married in a de facto marriage, male same-sex couple
18Married in a de facto marriage, female same-sex couple
2Not married
21Not married


21. This classification uses a two-digit code rather than a four-digit code, which would usually be used in a four level hierarchical classification structure. The use of a two digit code reduces storage and processing costs. The code structure also allows consistency in the coding of de facto couples (using the digits 5, 6, 7 and 8) with the 'Relationship in household' classification.

Residual categories and codes

22. Not applicable.

Supplementary codes

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

9 Not stated
98 Not stated


SCOPE OF THE CLASSIFICATION

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


APPLICATION OF THE CLASSIFICATION TO OTHER VARIABLES

25. The concept of 'Social marital status' is fundamental to the identification of couples and families and is therefore an essential component of the variables 'Relationship in household', 'Family composition', 'Income unit composition' and 'Household composition'.


CODING PROCEDURES

26. The ABS applies the classification criteria listed above to 'Relationship in household' data using either a selection process within a computer assisted coding instrument, or the Census processing system.



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