Literal question
3. Marital status
[] Single
[] Married
Date of marriage (of the present marriage)
Day _ _
Month _ _
Year _ _ _ _
[] Divorced
[] Widowed
3. Marital status: mark your legal marital status
Single: to be marked by all persons who have never been married.
Married: to be marked by persons who are living in not-dissolved marriage, even when they are separated from their spouse.
Divorced: to be marked by those persons who have not remarried, regardless of whether the former spouse is still alive or not.
Widowed: is to be marked if the marriage was ended due to the death of the spouse.
Persons living in a common-law partnership: mark "single", "widowed" or "divorced", depending on what their marital status is. "Married" is only to be marked if the marriage with the separately living spouse is still valid (yet not divorced).
Interviewer instructions
3, Marital status:
Possible answers: "single," "married," "divorced," "widowed"
For married persons: three writing fields (2-digit) for the date of marriage (day, month, year).
Your legal marital status should be marked.
Single should be marked by all persons who have never been married.
Married should be marked by persons who are living in valid (not divorced) marriage, even if they are separated from their spouse.
Divorced should be marked by those persons who have not remarried, regardless of whether the former spouse is still alive or not.
Widowed should be marked if the marriage was ended due to the death of a spouse.
Persons living in a consensual union should mark "single," "widowed," or "divorced" depending on what their marital status is. "Married" should only be marked if the marriage with the separately living spouse is still valid (not yet divorced).
Purpose of the question:
Marital status is, next to gender and age, a further basic characteristic of the population that is needed for a differentiation of the results (e.g. employed wives, married students) and for projections. The marital status breakdown was subjected to severe changes through the decrease in marriages and increase in divorces.
The date of marriage enables the break down and updating of existing marriages according to duration of marriage. From the comparison of length of marriage and number of children, certain regularities can be derived which make it easier to pre assess the development of the number of births.
