Appendix A: Identifying household and family reference persons

Collection of household and family composition data relies on a respondent from the household identifying all the usual residents of that household and listing them in order beginning with 'Person 1'. In practice, the respondent will usually be Person 1 but this is not always the case.

In most cases the selected Person 1 will prove to be appropriate as the household reference person. However, this is not certain until preliminary relationship coding has taken place. A household reference person is used as the basis for the identification of families and income units and the classification of the household. Relationships in the household are formed by describing each other person's relationship to Person 1. This process will show whether the selected Person 1 is appropriate to be the household reference person.

Families identified through application of 'Relationship in household' each have a family reference person. In a single family household, the household reference person and the family reference person are the same person. In multi-family households there is a family reference person for each family and one of the family reference persons is also designated as the household reference person. Once household and family reference persons have been properly identified according to the criteria below, it can be determined whether relationships within the household require recoding (if Person 1 is not found to be the appropriate household reference person) or that the relationships already coded can be confirmed.

To collect 'Relationship in household' data all usual residents of the household must be identified. The relationships of all usual residents of the household to the first usual resident named are then identified. Next, for each usual resident, any closer relationships to a usual resident other than Person 1 are identified. The relationships described are used to establish whether any families are present in the household. If so, a family reference person is selected for each family. If multiple families are present, a household reference person is selected from among the family reference persons. If no families are present, a household reference person is chosen according to the non-family criteria described below.

Reference persons must be aged 15 years or over and are identified according to:

Family criteria 

• they are one of the partners in a registered or de facto marriage; or
• a lone parent.

or

Non-family criteria

• they are the person with the highest income; or
• the owner, purchaser or primary rent payer of the household accommodation; or
• the eldest person.

The initial requirement in the interviewer-based question module is to determine the usual residents of the household. This is achieved by asking the following question:

'What are the names of all the people who usually live here?'

Each person named is assigned a row number and a person number. The first person named is identified as Person 1, the second person as Person 2 and so on.

Respondents are prompted with instructions to help select a suitable Person 1 - and thereby a suitable household reference person - on self-completed collection forms as this facilitates family coding and minimises subsequent re-processing. For example, in the 2011 Census of Population and Housing the instruction given was:

'Enter the householder or any adult household member as 'Person 1', and if present, the spouse or partner as 'Person 2''.

Once again, a suitable household reference person can be substituted during data processing if the nominated person proves to be unsuitable (e.g. where a child is entered as Person 1).

In many cases, the person nominated as Person 1 will prove to be a suitable reference person.

There will be times, however, when Person 1 is not the most suitable person to be the household reference person because he or she does not fulfil the criteria. The household reference person, while primarily a device to assist coding and processing relationship data, can also be used to create output variables (e.g. occupation of household reference person). It is therefore necessary to use the set of hierarchical criteria for identifying reference persons listed above to ensure consistency in identifying the household reference person. Depending upon the methodology being used to collect relationship data, this substitution of an appropriate reference person for an inappropriate one can be done after the collection of data, or through an input editing system.

Where Person 1 is not appropriate to be the household reference person, the relationships described in the raw data may be unsuitable for determining 'Relationship in household'. For example, if the household reference person is a son in a one family household comprised of his mother, father and sister the data would need to be processed so that one of the parents is the household reference person. Each other family member is then described in relation to that parent. This reallocation of the household reference person is required for more efficient 'Relationship in household' coding, because the classification is designed to classify children in relation to their parents rather than parents in relation to their children.

Another case when the household reference person may need to be modified is in a multi-family household. Multi-family households constitute only a small proportion of the total number of households but require careful coding to maintain the correct linkages.

In households that contain more than one family, a family reference person must be identified for each family. The following example illustrates how further processing is required when the second question (on any closer relationships that are present within the household) is asked. Consider a five person household consisting of two sisters (Maria and Christina), their husbands (Juan and Manuel respectively) and an unrelated individual (Fred). If Maria is chosen as the household reference person then Manuel is coded as a brother-in-law.

At the family level, however, the household is considered to consist of two families. As Maria was initially selected as Person 1, and therefore the household reference person, either Christina or Manuel must be chosen as the family reference person for the second family.

Note that question two in the interviewer-based question module (see the 'Standard Question Module' on the 'Collection Method' page) reveals a two family household if any of the four persons in either family is chosen as Person 1. In this example, when the correct procedures are applied and the best choice is made for the household reference person, a two family household is quickly identified and each family is coded as a couple family without children having no other related individuals in the household. In the example, Fred is an unrelated individual living in a family household. Note also that if Fred was chosen as Person 1, even though the second question would eventually establish a two family household, the existence of the sibling relationship between Maria and Christina would not be detected.

Once the household members have been allocated to families (assuming there are families present), the responses provided on the collection form are further processed so that a reference person is chosen for each family. For clarification of the rules for determining families in multi-family households refer to 'Rules for Identifying Families' in the standard for 'Family composition'.

To select each family reference person the standard hierarchical set of criteria for identifying reference persons (see above) is applied to each family from the top down. Only then is one of the family reference persons designated as the household reference person. To select the household reference person in a multi-family household, a further set of hierarchical criteria (which follows the standard hierarchic set of criteria for identifying reference persons above) is applied to the family reference persons as listed below:

Family criteria - one of the partners is in a registered or de facto marriage

• If only one of the family reference persons is a partner in a couple relationship, that reference person is selected as the household reference person.
• If more than one family reference person is a partner in a couple relationship, the reference person with dependent children is chosen.
• If more than one partner has dependent children present, or none of the marriage partners has dependent children present, the non-family criteria (income, owner with or without a mortgage, primary renter, eldest person) are applied to the married family reference persons, in the order stated above, so that one household reference person is chosen.

Family criteria - a lone parent

• If none of the family reference persons is in a registered or de facto marriage, a lone parent is chosen.
• If more than one lone parent is present the non-family criteria (income, owner with or without a mortgage, primary rent payer, eldest person) are applied to the lone parent reference persons, in the order stated above, so that one household reference person is chosen.

Non-family criteria

• If none of the family reference persons has been chosen on the basis of the family criteria (one partner in a registered or de facto marriage, a lone parent) or there are no family reference persons, the remaining non-family criteria (income, owner with or without a mortgage, primary rent payer, eldest person) are applied in the order stated above so that one household reference person is chosen.