Interviewer instructions
P10 Marital status: "If (name) is 12 years or older", what is (name's) current marital status?
Question P10 is to be asked of persons who are 12 years or older. Six main options, "Married", "Informal/Loose union/living together", "Separated", "Divorced", "Widowed", "Never married (Single)" have been provided. Only one answer must be marked and your answer must refer to marital status at Census Night.
Married: are persons who at the reference time (26th March 2000) had marriage partners whether they were staying in the same house or not. "Married" includes persons in all types of marriages e.g. civil, traditional and common law.
Occasionally, you may come across a respondent who has been divorced or widowed before his or her present marriage. You must treat such a person as married now. Enter code 1 and mark X in the appropriate box for all such persons.
Informal/loose union/living together: Write 2 in the cross check header code and mark an X in the box for this if a relationship has been contracted by two adults and living together without civil or traditional recognition.
Separated: Enter code 3 and mark an X for all persons who because of a dispute or other reasons were no longer staying as "married partners" but whose marriage had not been declared customarily or legally dissolved. Note that the mere fact that the two married partners are not staying in the same house does not necessarily mean that the two are separated. Normally a "Separated" person has his/her case before the "elders of one of the families" or before a law court. A separation need not lead to a divorce.
Divorced: Enter code 4 and mark X for all persons who at the reference time have had their marriage formally annulled - either in court or by custom and have not remarried.
Widowed: Enter code 5 and mark X for persons who at the reference time had lost their marriage partners through death and have not remarried.
Never married (single): Write and mark X for persons who have never been married.
