The relationships classified by this variable are those between the reference person and each other member of the household. In a family household, the relationships classified are those between the family reference person and each family member.

The name of the variable is 'Relationship in household'.

The variable 'Relationship in household' is defined as: 

• The relationships between people in a given household.

'Relationship in household' is an attribute of the counting unit 'person'.

Operationally, 'Relationship in household' is defined as the relationship between all persons who are usual residents of the household to the person who is chosen as the reference person.

The household reference person is either the respondent or the person nominated by the respondent as Person 1 on the collection form. In many cases they will be one and the same. See Appendix A of the 'Relationship in household' variable for details on identifying family and household reference persons.

A household is also often referred to as 'dwelling', as all the people in a household are in the same dwelling. In addition, a household can comprise more than one family living in the same dwelling.

Key points when applying the definition are:

• A household reference person is identified for all households.
• In households where no families are present, all relationships are identified with respect to the household reference person.
• If only one family is present in the household, the household reference person will also be the family reference person (see Appendix A of the Relationship in household variable for details on identifying household and family reference persons).
• In households with more than one family (i.e. multi-family households), each family will have its own family reference person.
• Each separate family living in the same household is considered a separate unit and is allocated a Family number. The family of the household reference person is the Primary family or Family number 1.
• In households with more than one family, the family reference persons of the non-Primary families describe their 'Relationship in household' to the household reference person by using the 'Relationship between families' standard.
• Natural, step, adoptive and foster relationships are all treated in the same way.
• All family households can also include unrelated individuals who are living in the household.
• Lone person and Group households never include related persons as they are non-family households.

'Relationship in household' applies to all usual residents of a dwelling. The dwelling may contain a one family household, or a multi-family household, or a group household or a lone person household.

Visitors are generally outside the scope of surveys using this classification as they are not usual residents of the selected household. However, in collections such as the Census of Population and Housing where some information is collected about visitors to the household at the time of the collection, they can be identified using a supplementary code and output as non-classifiable (households).

Notions of what constitutes a family vary considerably. Some people consider their family to be the relatives with whom they live in the same dwelling. Others extend their definition of family to include relatives who live in other dwellings. For some, the notion of family includes people who are unrelated.

As ABS household surveys are based on the dwelling being enumerated, for practical reasons the concept of family is generally restricted to include only those persons usually resident in the same household. A concept of family which extends beyond the one household would make it impossible to identify discrete family units for the purposes of counting the number of families and describing their characteristics. In some family-specific ABS surveys, data is collected about wider family networks where the definition of a family is not constrained to one dwelling.

'Relationship in household' is primarily used for coding and classifying families and households, and the derivation of variables such as 'Family composition' and 'Household composition', rather than as an output variable in its own right.

Collection methods for this data vary between surveys and the Census of Population and Housing. Specifically, household surveys use a Computer Assisted Interviewing system while the Census has a self-completed form. This variation results in two collection-method-specific input classifications, as detailed in the 'Standard Input Categories' section (see the 'Collection Methods' page). The Standard Classification and Code Structure (see the 'Classification and Coding' page), and the different aggregates specified in the 'Standard output categories' section (see the 'Output' page), apply primarily to self-completed collections such as the Census of Population and Housing.

It is recognised that the household and family structures used by the ABS to report collection results may not adequately reflect the social and family relationships relevant in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of Australia. However, they do provide a comparison with the 'Family composition' and 'Household composition' of the non-Indigenous population.

Categories for 'Relationship in household' are based on the following criteria (in order of importance): 

• Whether the person is in a Couple relationship.
• If so, whether the relationship is a registered marriage.
• Whether the person is in a Parent-child relationship.
• Whether the person is a Dependent child.
• Whether the person is in an Other family relationship.
• If so, the precise nature of that relationship.
• Sex.
• Family number.

Denotes two people usually residing in the same household who share a social, economic and emotional bond usually associated with marriage and who consider their relationship to be a marriage or marriage-like union. The 'Relationship in household' variable distinguishes between registered and de facto marriages. 

Exist between a 'parent' and that person's 'child' when they are usual residents in the same dwelling. A parent must be 15 years of age or over, while a child can be any age and related to the parent through birth, adoption, step family formation or fostering.

A child is a person of any age who is a natural, adopted, step, foster or nominal son or daughter of a couple or lone parent who is a usual resident in the same household. A child is also any individual younger than 15 years of age, usually resident in the household, who forms a parent-child relationship with another member in the household. This includes otherwise related children and unrelated children under 15 years. To be classified as a child, the person can have no identified partner or child of their own usually resident in the household: a separate family would be formed in that case. Nominal child allocation rules (where a child under 15 years is a usual resident of a dwelling in which their parent is not a usual resident and must therefore be allocated a 'nominal parent') are specified in the Coding Procedures section of the 'Family composition' standard.

Dependency in ABS standards refers to nominally economic dependency only. Age and student status determine dependency for this purpose on the assumption that children under 15 and full-time students aged 15-24 years are unlikely to be able to support themselves.

Three broad categories of child are included in the 'Relationship in household' classification:

• Child under 15 years (also referred to as a dependent child).
• Dependent student aged 15-24 years and studying full-time (also referred to as a dependent child).
• Non-dependent child.

An 'Other family relationship' is any familial or marital relationship between two people excluding couple relationships and parent-child relationships. This includes relationships between generations (e.g. grandparents and grandchildren) and first cousins (i.e. persons related through one common set of grandparents), but not second cousins and beyond. A full list of the familial relationships that fall within the scope of an 'other family relationship' is given in the 'Coding Procedures' section of the 'Family composition' standard.

A person of any age who is a natural, adopted, step, foster or nominal son or daughter of a couple or lone parent who is a usual resident in the same household. A child is also any individual younger than 15 years of age, usually resident in the household, who forms a parent-child relationship with another member in the household. This includes otherwise related children and unrelated children under 15 years. To be classified as a child, the person can have no identified partner or child of their own usually resident in the household: a separate family would be formed in that case. Nominal child allocation rules (where a child under 15 years is a usual resident of a dwelling in which their parent is not a usual resident and must therefore be allocated a 'nominal parent') are specified in the Coding Procedures section of the 'Family composition' standard.

Dependency in ABS standards refers to nominally economic dependency only. Age and student status determine dependency for this purpose on the assumption that children under 15 and full-time students aged 15-24 years are unlikely to be able to support themselves.

Three broad categories of child are included in the 'Relationship in household' classification:

• Child under 15 years (also referred to as a dependent child).
• Dependent student aged 15-24 years and studying full-time (also referred to as a dependent child).
• Non-dependent child.

An 'Other family relationship' is any familial or marital relationship between two people excluding couple relationships and parent-child relationships. This includes relationships between generations (e.g. grandparents and grandchildren) and first cousins (i.e. persons related through one common set of grandparents), but not second cousins and beyond. A full list of the familial relationships that fall within the scope of an 'other family relationship' is given in the 'Coding Procedures' section of the 'Family composition' standard.

'Relationship in household' is a four level hierarchical classification with detailed categories of the classification (i.e. codes 15-18) coded using two digits rather than three or four. This is because many ABS surveys do not make the distinction between same-sex and opposite-sex couples in their standard output. This level of output is, however, available from the Census of Population and Housing.

The categories are as follows:

Residual code '69' is reserved for 'Other related individual not elsewhere classified'. Two examples are great uncle and second cousin.

Supplementary codes can be used for responses outside the scope of the classification but in-scope for the particular collection. This allows information to be retained while maintaining the distinction between the usual residents of a household, and visitors and others. Code 91 is recommended for responses of 'Visitor' in collections in which visitors to a household are in-scope of the collection, such as the Census of Population and Housing. Code 99 is recommended for 'Other non-classifiable relationships' of people if required. Census also uses the additional supplementary code 'VV' to identify overseas visitors.

The 'Relationship in household' classification applies to all usual residents of a dwelling. Visitors to the dwelling are generally outside the scope of this classification.

The categories of the 'Relationship in household' classification can be output in their own right. They can also be cross-classified by a range of other socio-demographic variables as the basis for identifying family and income units. The output of the classification is used directly as input to the 'Income unit composition', 'Family composition' and 'Household composition' standards.

Data for 'Relationship in household' is captured from a direct question and coded to a standard input category. The relationship to Person 1 is coded so that the family units in the household can be formed. Subsequent examination of the families produced from coding can confirm whether that Person 1 satisfies the criteria for a household reference person. Rules for forming families in all collections which aim to identify the structure of families within households can be found in the 'Family composition' standard.

A step child must be identified as being the step son or step daughter of one or both partners in a couple family, or as the step child of the lone parent in a one-parent family. In self-completed collections, a person must identify as being the child of one but not both people in a couple relationship, or be specifically identified as the step child of either one of the persons in a couple relationship or a lone parent, to be coded as a step child. However, in standard coding in most household surveys, the step child becomes indistinguishable from any other type of child once a code is allocated. Similarly, in these household surveys a person who is coded as a step-parent or step-sibling becomes indistinguishable from any other type of parent or sibling once a code is allocated.

In self-completed collections a person who does not form a couple or parent-child relationship (i.e. is not part of a family) will be coded to the appropriate type of relationship in the 'Other related individual' codes. For example, in a household composed of a reference person, spouse, daughter, son, and mother-in-law, the mother-in-law will be coded to 'Father/mother', which is effectively their relationship to one member of the family.

The 'Family number' identifier allows the coding of separate families from the 'Relationship in household' data. A single digit code is assigned to each person to indicate the family to which each person belongs as follows:

• code '0' is assigned to persons who are not members of families
• code '1' is assigned to all family members in a one family household, or to members of the first family in multi-family households
• code '2' is assigned to members of the second family in multi-family households, and so on.

The total number of families which can effectively be identified in a given collection may be limited by operational constraints. For example, up to nine families will be coded in ABS household surveys if the data is provided, and generally a maximum of 15 usual residents can be entered into the survey instrument. In Censuses of Population and Housing up to and including the 2011 Census, a limit of three families could be coded per dwelling due to the constraints of the printed self-completed form.

A coding index has been developed to assist in the implementation and use of the 'Relationship in Household' standard, and should be used when coding responses to questions relating to relationship. It contains a comprehensive list of the most probable responses to questions relating to relationships and their correct classification codes. The coding index enables responses to be coded accurately and quickly to the appropriate category of the classification.

The initial requirement in the Interviewer-based collection's question module is to determine who are the usual residents of the household. This is achieved by asking the following question:

'What are the names of all the people who usually live here?'

Each person named is assigned a row number and a person number. The first person named is identified as Person 1, the second person as Person 2 and so on (see Appendix A of the 'Relationship in household' variable for details on identifying family and household reference persons).

The following question is then asked of all usual residents of the household, except for Person 1:

If the response to Q1 is anything other than 'spouse', 'partner', 'father', 'mother', 'son' (including step, foster and adopted relationships), and 'daughter' (including step, foster and adopted relationships), and there are more than two usual residents in the household, a further question is asked:

This allows the identification of additional families within the household. It may be asked of some, all or none of the usual residents of the household.

The identification of de facto couples, including same-sex couples, is reliant on respondents volunteering this information in reply to general questions about relationships between members of the household. More detailed questioning on this subject is considered intrusive.

The remaining questions are asked of usual residents of the household. However, they can be restricted to people aged between 15-24 years if it is operationally feasible. The following question is used to determine whether persons who are 15 to 24 years of age are dependent children. In some collections the information obtained from Q3 (and Q4) below on student status is instead obtained from question modules on education topics. Where this occurs these questions need not be asked as part of the 'Relationship in household' module.

In collections where data on part-time students are also required, then the following questions are asked instead of the question above:

The standard question module for self-completed collections consists of two questions. Self-completed collections do not have the benefit of an interviewer to help select the appropriate household reference person so a simple statement should be included as part of the instructions for Question 1. In the 2011 Census of Population and Housing, the instructions were:

• "Person 1: The householder if present, otherwise any adult member of the household."
• "Person 2: The spouse or partner of 'Person 1' if present, otherwise any person present."
• "Persons 3 to 6: Any other person present in the household."

As shown below, Question 1 does not require a response from Person 1. Each subsequent person is required to mark the appropriate box in response to the above instruction. The set of response categories for Person 2 differs from those used for Person 3 and so on.

A second question is asked of all usual residents of the household. Responses to the question determine whether any person aged 15-24 years is classified as a dependent child.

'Relationship in household' data, as originally collected, are dependent on who is Person 1. If Person 1 proves not to be an appropriate reference person on which to base 'Family composition' coding during subsequent processing, for example when a non-dependent child is selected rather than that person's parent, raw data must be further processed in order to obtain the input categories of the 'Relationship in household' classification (see Appendix A of the 'Relationship in household' variable for details on identifying family and household reference persons).

As mentioned in the section on 'Discussion of Conceptual Issues' (see the 'Underlying Concepts' page), collection methods for this data vary between surveys and Censuses. This results in two input classifications, specifically for interviewer-based and self-completed forms, as follows:

In Interviewer-based collections, the 'Relationship in household' categories are designed specifically for the process of family formation. Any requirement that detailed 'Relationship in household' data be obtained from household surveys would necessitate asking for additional information. This would usually only take place in the context of a household survey that is intended to investigate particular issues.

The input categories used for household surveys describe the relationships of people in the household to Person 1, who may not be the appropriate Reference Person. No code numbers are given for the categories because any codes relating to the category names are used only for processing those categories into family formations. There are nine groups of categories:

For Self-completed collections, the standard input categories are the two digit categories provided in the 'Standard Classification and Code Structure' section (see the 'Classification and Coding' page).

For operational reasons, code 91 is recommended for responses of 'Visitor' in collections in which visitors to a household are in-scope of the collection, such as the Census of Population and Housing. The code 99 is recommended for 'Other non-classifiable relationships' of people if required. Censuses also use an additional supplementary code 'VV' to identify overseas visitors.

Output includes publications, user guides, data cubes and microdata.

The following are the recommended standard output categories for data on 'Relationship in household' for use in self-completed collections such as the Census of Population and Housing only. This is because the input classifications for the Census are different to those for household surveys as discussed in the 'Collection Methods' page.

It is standard to aggregate data from these categories in interviewer-based and self-completed collections as follows, and footnotes and/or glossary entries must describe the standard output categories which comprise each aggregated output category:

Note: Visitors are not included in this output aggregation.

Output aggregating dependent children where the two categories 'Child under 15' and 'Dependent student' are aggregated to form a single output category of 'Dependent child':

Output aggregating 'Relationship in household' with 'Family composition' can be used if appropriate. Note that for collections where 'Children under 15' are out of scope, such as ABS Labour Force collections, the category 'Child under 15' may be omitted.

It is also possible to further aggregate the above table as follows:

Mandatory footnotes and other output information are required when disseminating data even though all the outputs stated above are standard. A summary of these footnotes and output information follows:

• Glossary definitions must be listed for every standard output label used.
• The separate identification of same-sex couple families is not recommended for standard output because the reporting of same-sex couple relationships is likely to be low. Such data would therefore be expected to be statistically insignificant, to exhibit high standard errors and potentially breach confidentiality requirements in some collections.
• The abbreviation 'n.e.c.' must be footnoted with the explanation 'not elsewhere classified'.
• The categories 'With children under 15', 'With no children under 15 and with dependent students' and 'With non-dependent children only' are mutually exclusive:
  • the category 'With children under 15' may or may not include the presence of dependent students and non-dependent children
  • similarly, the category 'With no children under 15 and with dependent students' may or may not include non-dependent children.
• These facts must be stated in a footnote.
• The category 'Not living alone' is an aggregation of two categories from the standard classification: 'Unrelated individual in family household' and 'Group household member'. This must be stated in a footnote or explained by a Glossary entry for 'Not living alone'.
• The distinction between step child and the other types of child is optional, and depends on whether this information is available from the response data.

When members of a household have been confirmed as usual residents of the dwelling, the following supporting variables are required for deriving a valid 'Relationship in household':

'Age'

• The age of each person is required for identifying children and other dependent relationships.

'Sex'

• The sex of each person is required to identify same-sex couple relationships.

'Marital status'

• In collections that distinguish between registered and de facto (social) marriages, 'Registered marital status' is a required supporting variable for 'Relationship in household'. However, for some collections the distinction between 'married' and 'not married' in the 'Social marital status' classification is sufficient for output requirements.

'Full-time/part-time student status'

• This is used to determine whether household members who are 15-24 years of age are studying and therefore considered to be dependent children.

'Family number'

• Separate families living in the same household are treated as separate units by the 'Relationship in household' classification. Each family unit in a household is assigned a Family number; the same family number is then assigned to each person in that family.

The 'Relationship in household' classification is closely linked to the following standard classifications:

• 'Family composition'.
• 'Household composition'.
• 'Registered marital status'.
• 'Social marital status'.
• 'Income unit composition'.

Changes to any of these classifications cannot be considered in isolation and all possible ramifications concerning the other classifications should be investigated before any change is adopted.

Collection of household and family composition data relies on a respondent from the household identifying all the usual residents of that household and listing them in order beginning with 'Person 1'. In practice, the respondent will usually be Person 1 but this is not always the case.

In most cases the selected Person 1 will prove to be appropriate as the household reference person. However, this is not certain until preliminary relationship coding has taken place. A household reference person is used as the basis for the identification of families and income units and the classification of the household. Relationships in the household are formed by describing each other person's relationship to Person 1. This process will show whether the selected Person 1 is appropriate to be the household reference person.

Families identified through application of 'Relationship in household' each have a family reference person. In a single family household, the household reference person and the family reference person are the same person. In multi-family households there is a family reference person for each family and one of the family reference persons is also designated as the household reference person. Once household and family reference persons have been properly identified according to the criteria below, it can be determined whether relationships within the household require recoding (if Person 1 is not found to be the appropriate household reference person) or that the relationships already coded can be confirmed.

To collect 'Relationship in household' data all usual residents of the household must be identified. The relationships of all usual residents of the household to the first usual resident named are then identified. Next, for each usual resident, any closer relationships to a usual resident other than Person 1 are identified. The relationships described are used to establish whether any families are present in the household. If so, a family reference person is selected for each family. If multiple families are present, a household reference person is selected from among the family reference persons. If no families are present, a household reference person is chosen according to the non-family criteria described below.

Reference persons must be aged 15 years or over and are identified according to:

Family criteria 

• they are one of the partners in a registered or de facto marriage; or
• a lone parent.

or

Non-family criteria

• they are the person with the highest income; or
• the owner, purchaser or primary rent payer of the household accommodation; or
• the eldest person.

The initial requirement in the interviewer-based question module is to determine the usual residents of the household. This is achieved by asking the following question:

'What are the names of all the people who usually live here?'

Each person named is assigned a row number and a person number. The first person named is identified as Person 1, the second person as Person 2 and so on.

Respondents are prompted with instructions to help select a suitable Person 1 - and thereby a suitable household reference person - on self-completed collection forms as this facilitates family coding and minimises subsequent re-processing. For example, in the 2011 Census of Population and Housing the instruction given was:

'Enter the householder or any adult household member as 'Person 1', and if present, the spouse or partner as 'Person 2''.

Once again, a suitable household reference person can be substituted during data processing if the nominated person proves to be unsuitable (e.g. where a child is entered as Person 1).

In many cases, the person nominated as Person 1 will prove to be a suitable reference person.

There will be times, however, when Person 1 is not the most suitable person to be the household reference person because he or she does not fulfil the criteria. The household reference person, while primarily a device to assist coding and processing relationship data, can also be used to create output variables (e.g. occupation of household reference person). It is therefore necessary to use the set of hierarchical criteria for identifying reference persons listed above to ensure consistency in identifying the household reference person. Depending upon the methodology being used to collect relationship data, this substitution of an appropriate reference person for an inappropriate one can be done after the collection of data, or through an input editing system.

Where Person 1 is not appropriate to be the household reference person, the relationships described in the raw data may be unsuitable for determining 'Relationship in household'. For example, if the household reference person is a son in a one family household comprised of his mother, father and sister the data would need to be processed so that one of the parents is the household reference person. Each other family member is then described in relation to that parent. This reallocation of the household reference person is required for more efficient 'Relationship in household' coding, because the classification is designed to classify children in relation to their parents rather than parents in relation to their children.

Another case when the household reference person may need to be modified is in a multi-family household. Multi-family households constitute only a small proportion of the total number of households but require careful coding to maintain the correct linkages.

In households that contain more than one family, a family reference person must be identified for each family. The following example illustrates how further processing is required when the second question (on any closer relationships that are present within the household) is asked. Consider a five person household consisting of two sisters (Maria and Christina), their husbands (Juan and Manuel respectively) and an unrelated individual (Fred). If Maria is chosen as the household reference person then Manuel is coded as a brother-in-law.

At the family level, however, the household is considered to consist of two families. As Maria was initially selected as Person 1, and therefore the household reference person, either Christina or Manuel must be chosen as the family reference person for the second family.

Note that question two in the interviewer-based question module (see the 'Standard Question Module' on the 'Collection Method' page) reveals a two family household if any of the four persons in either family is chosen as Person 1. In this example, when the correct procedures are applied and the best choice is made for the household reference person, a two family household is quickly identified and each family is coded as a couple family without children having no other related individuals in the household. In the example, Fred is an unrelated individual living in a family household. Note also that if Fred was chosen as Person 1, even though the second question would eventually establish a two family household, the existence of the sibling relationship between Maria and Christina would not be detected.

Once the household members have been allocated to families (assuming there are families present), the responses provided on the collection form are further processed so that a reference person is chosen for each family. For clarification of the rules for determining families in multi-family households refer to 'Rules for Identifying Families' in the standard for 'Family composition'.

To select each family reference person the standard hierarchical set of criteria for identifying reference persons (see above) is applied to each family from the top down. Only then is one of the family reference persons designated as the household reference person. To select the household reference person in a multi-family household, a further set of hierarchical criteria (which follows the standard hierarchic set of criteria for identifying reference persons above) is applied to the family reference persons as listed below:

Family criteria - one of the partners is in a registered or de facto marriage

• If only one of the family reference persons is a partner in a couple relationship, that reference person is selected as the household reference person.
• If more than one family reference person is a partner in a couple relationship, the reference person with dependent children is chosen.
• If more than one partner has dependent children present, or none of the marriage partners has dependent children present, the non-family criteria (income, owner with or without a mortgage, primary renter, eldest person) are applied to the married family reference persons, in the order stated above, so that one household reference person is chosen.

Family criteria - a lone parent

• If none of the family reference persons is in a registered or de facto marriage, a lone parent is chosen.
• If more than one lone parent is present the non-family criteria (income, owner with or without a mortgage, primary rent payer, eldest person) are applied to the lone parent reference persons, in the order stated above, so that one household reference person is chosen.

Non-family criteria

• If none of the family reference persons has been chosen on the basis of the family criteria (one partner in a registered or de facto marriage, a lone parent) or there are no family reference persons, the remaining non-family criteria (income, owner with or without a mortgage, primary rent payer, eldest person) are applied in the order stated above so that one household reference person is chosen.