Legally registered relationship status
Sophie Davies
Public
Seen by 243
The move away from legal marriage is continuing, and the distinctions between legally registered relationships and other partnerships are becoming more blurred.
While demand for information on legal marital status appears to be decreasing, removing the legal marital status question in the census would mean we could no longer produce marital rates, divorce rates, and nuptial and ex-nuptial birth rates.
We want to know if our customers still need us to produce these rates.
Our current recommendations relating to partnership in legally registered relationship status
- We welcome feedback on which categories are required for the data produced on relationship status, and whether we still need to collect and produce information that identifies people’s legal marital status.
See our preliminary view of 2018 Census content (page 15) for a more detailed discussion on legally registered relationship status information.
See 2013 Census information by variable for information on the legally registered relationship status variable.
Kay Mon 11 May 2015 8:33AM
I recommend continuing with current categories (married/ civil union partners/ single/ ....) but also adding categories recognised by Government agencies. E.g. a two year or more de facto relationship is recognised by Government for property ownership purposes. Questions could be framed as - in a couple based relationship (or better words) ? If yes, specify whether married, civil unioned, de facto of 2 years or more, de facto of less than 2 years. Other categories would be single (including divorced, dissolved, or widowed), and in other relationship e.g. with two or more other adults.
Kay Mon 11 May 2015 8:33AM
Reasons for relationship status include statistical trends and planning housing services.
judith davey Mon 11 May 2015 9:57PM
The situation is much more complicated - does a "relationship" require living together? How can this be defined? We cannot go on just calling them "relationships" as everybody is in hundred of relationships of many different types. Does it mean marital relationships, whatever they are? Sexual relationships? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Close personal relationships? These could be numerous. I think we need to be careful in this area.
Camille (facilitator) · Wed 29 Apr 2015 8:09PM
Kia ora, hello, and welcome to the 2018 Census discussion on legally registered relationship status. I am Camille- I work for Statistics New Zealand and I'm here to facilitate open, respectful and inclusive discussion. Click here to introduce yourself on the welcome and introductions page.
We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.