Living arrangements
Definition
The ‘living arrangements’ classification combines responses to the question on marital and civil partnership status with information about whether or not a person is living in a couple. This classification is only applicable to people in households.
Living arrangements differs from marital and civil partnership status because cohabiting takes priority over other categories. For example, if a person is divorced and cohabiting, then in results for living arrangements they are classified as cohabiting.
Classification
Total number of categories 12
| Code | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Living in a couple: Married (including separated) |
| 2 | Living in a couple: Civil partnership (including separated) |
| 3 | Living in a couple: Cohabiting |
| 4 | Not living in a couple: Single (never married or never registered in a civil partnership) |
| 5 | Not living in a couple: Married |
| 6 | Not living in a couple: Registered civil partnership |
| 7 | Not living in a couple: Separated (but still legally married or still legally in a civil partnership) |
| 08 | Not living in a couple: Divorced |
| 09 | Not living in a couple: Dissolved |
| 10 | Not living in a couple: Widowed |
| 11 | Not living in a couple: Survived |
| -5 | No code required - comprises people in communal establishments and school children and full-time students living away from home during term-time. |
England & Wales and Scotland (2011) comparisons
This variable is directly comparable to the variable produced for Scotland's Census 2011.
The equivalent variable (living_arrangements) produced by ONS for the 2021 Census in England & Wales is broadly comparable.
Definition
The ‘living arrangements’ classification combines responses to the question on marital and civil partnership status with information about whether or not a person is living in a couple. This classification is only applicable to people in households.
Living arrangements differs from marital and civil partnership status because cohabiting takes priority over other categories. For example, if a person is divorced and cohabiting, then in results for living arrangements they are classified as cohabiting.
Classification
Total number of categories 12
| Code | Name |
|---|---|
| 01 | Living in a couple: Married (including separated) |
| 02 | Living in a couple: Registered same-sex civil partnership (including separated) |
| 03 | Living in a couple: Cohabiting |
| 04 | Not living in a couple: Single (never married or never registered a same-sex civil partnership) |
| 05 | Not living in a couple: Married |
| 06 | Not living in a couple: Registered same-sex civil partnership |
| 07 | Not living in a couple: Separated (but still legally married or still legally in a same-sex civil partnership) |
| 08 | Not living in a couple: Divorced |
| 09 | Not living in a couple: Dissolved |
| 10 | Not living in a couple: Widowed |
| 11 | Not living in a couple: Survived |
| XX | No code required - comprises people in communal establishments and school children and full-time students living away from home during term-time. |
Source question or variables
FT1 (Derived variable)
GENINFAM (Derived variable)
MARSTAT (Primary variable)
RESIDENCE_TYPE (Primary variable)
TERMIND (Primary variable)
Known Quality Issues
This variable relies on relationship data, which include some known quality issues. These are summarised on the Data Quality Issues Page.
Definition
This derived variable is created by combining the responses to the question on legal Marital Status (MSTPUK), and the responses to the relationship question. This is an ONS harmonised survey classification.
Classification
Total number of categories 9
| Code | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Living in a couple: Married (including separated) |
| 2 | Living in a couple: Remarried |
| 3 | Living in a couple: Cohabiting |
| 4 | Not living in a couple: Single |
| 5 | Not living in a couple: Married or remarried |
| 6 | Not living in a couple: Separated |
| 7 | Not living in a couple: Divorced |
| 8 | Not living in a couple: Widowed |
| X | Not applicable |