Interviewer instructions
P35 Age at First Marriage
Age at first marriage when tabulated with number of children ever born provides information on the fertility patterns of women on their first marriage.
Ask the question "What was ____'s age at first marriage?" only for females aged 15 years old to 49 years old and with entries of either of codes 2, 3, 4 ,5 or 6 in P7 (Marital Status).
Marriage here may either be a legal or consensual union (where the man and woman decide to live together without the benefit of clergy or civil ceremony).
Enter in this column the age when the woman first entered married life or a consensual union, even if she was married more than once. Normally in legal marriages, it is the age when the marriage was solemnized. In cases wherein the spouses lived together before legal marriage, the age to be reported would be the age when the spouses began to live together. However, if in spite of their living apart, they had intimate relations (and this fact is volunteered by the respondent) , then the age of the woman to be reported should be her age when she had her first intimate relations after the marriage. In a consensual marriage, it is the age of the woman when she and the man began to live together as husband and wife.
See the illustration on the next page for the correct way of filling up the fertility items (P32 to P35).
[Picture: Illustration 8.3 Filling up the fertility items of CPH form 3]