Household relationship refers to the familial and non-familial relationships of each person of the household to every other household member.
The household members defined in this fashion are not necessarily related by blood or by marriage. A household can consist of a single family, more than one family or no families in the case of a group of unrelated people.
The relationship question is suitable for use in determining families within a household, including where there are two or more families in the one household.
Household relationship refers to the composition of private households and the intra-household relationships between household members, i.e. a person’s relationship to that of each other household member.
This harmonised standard presents guidance on how household relationships can be defined, measured and presented in a more consistent manner.
Data on household relationship is important in understanding trends in the social, economic, and general well-being of households, including those not determined by blood or marriage. As society changes a greater understanding of household relationship, not limited to traditional legally constituted relationships, is required to forecast future needs for social and economic programmes and in measuring the effect of policies.
Many data collections require information on household relationships. When collecting data on this topic, either of the following questions are recommended:
The standard questions on this topic are designed to collect information, for use in the majority of surveys or data collections. However, it is not intended to replace questions already in use for specialist surveys where more detailed analysis is required.
Some statistical production may require more detailed information on household relationships. In such circumstances, any additional response categories should be based on the standard reference classification. Using the standard reference classification will enable more comparison between surveys, as the definitions and conceptual basis will be consistent.
The following list of response options represents the basic level of detail that the CSO recommends should be gathered in data collection.
| Standard Response Options and Codes for Household Relationship | |
| 10 | Partner |
| 20 | Son or daughter |
| 30 | Grandchild |
| 40 | Parent |
| 50 | Son-in-law or daughter-in-law |
| 60 | Father-in-law or mother-in-law |
| 70 | Grandparent |
| 80 | Brother or sister |
| 90 | Other relative |
| 95 | Unrelated |
The category other relative can be used to count individuals who are related, but their relationship is not represented by other listed categories. The category unrelated can be used to count individuals who are not related. Expansion of other relative and unrelated categories can be found within level 2 of the standard reference classification for Household Relationship.
The standard response options and standard reference classification provided are based on recommended categories of EuroStat’s IESS framework, which aims to ensure that social statistics are produced in a more harmonised and coordinated manner across Europe. Where data collections require more granular breakdowns, please refer to the standard reference classification, with associated coding structure.
| Description of Standard Response Options of Household Relationship | |
|
Partner |
Partner may refer to a husband or wife. It may also refer to cohabiting couples in an intimate and committed relationship, who are not married to each other. |
|
Son or daughter |
Son or daughter refers to a person's child including legal and adopted. Stepson or stepdaughter refers to a partner's child, regardless of age or partnership/relationship status, who has usual residence in the household of at least one of the parents. |
|
Grandchild |
Grandchild refers to the child of a person's son or daughter including legal, adopted and stepson or stepdaughter. |
|
Parent |
A parent may refer to the child’s mother or father, or to the legal guardian of a child. |
|
Son-in-law or daughter-in-law |
In-law refers to a relative by marriage. E.g., Son-in-law is the husband of one's son or daughter. |
|
Father-in-law or mother-in-law |
In-law refers to a relative by marriage. E.g., Father-in-law is the father of one’s husband or wife. |
|
Grandparent |
Grandparent refers to a parent of one’s parent including legal, adoptive and stepfather or stepmother. |
|
Brother or sister |
Sibling refers to one or more individuals having the same parents (brother or sister) or sometimes only one parent in common (stepbrother or stepsister). |
|
Other relative |
A relative is defined as a person connected by blood or marriage. Other relative refers to another relative not included in the list outlined above, such as cousin, aunt or uncle, niece or nephew, etc. |
|
Unrelated |
This category corresponds to EuroStat's other non-relative category. A non-relative is defined as a person who is not connected by blood or marriage. Examples may include au-pair, friend, house sharer, lodger, etc. While normally recognised as part of family groupings in an Irish context, to align with EuroStat's categorisation, foster children are included in this category. |
In developing this data standard, the CSO explored user requirements for additional breakdowns which were used to develop the following Standard Reference Classification for Household Relationships:
| Standard Reference Classification for Household Relationship | |||
| Level 1 | Level 2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Partner | ||
| 101 | Husband or wife | ||
| 102 | Registered civil partner | ||
| 103 | Partner or cohabitee | ||
| 20 | Son or daughter | ||
| 201 | Son or daughter | ||
| 202 | Stepson or stepdaughter | ||
| 30 | Grandchild | ||
| 300 | Grandchild | ||
| 40 | Parent | ||
| 401 | Parent | ||
| 402 | Stepfather or stepmother | ||
| 50 | Son-in-law or daughter-in-law | ||
| 500 | Son-in-law or daughter-in-law | ||
| 60 | Father-in-law or mother-in-law | ||
| 600 | Father-in-law or mother-in-law | ||
| 70 | Grandparent | ||
| 700 | Grandparent | ||
| 80 | Brother or sister | ||
| 801 | Brother or sister | ||
| 802 | Stepbrother or stepsister | ||
| 90 | Other relative | ||
| 901 | Aunt or uncle | ||
| 902 | Niece or nephew | ||
| 903 | Cousin | ||
| 904 | Grandchild-in-law | ||
| 905 | Grandparent-in-law | ||
| 906 | Brother-in-law or sister-in-law | ||
| 909 | Other relative n.e.c. (not elsewhere classified) | ||
| 95 | Unrelated | ||
| 951 | Foster child | ||
| 952 | Foster parent | ||
| 953 | Friend | ||
| 954 | Student | ||
| 955 | Au-pair | ||
| 959 | Unrelated n.e.c. (not elsewhere classified) | ||
| 98 | Not stated | ||
| 980 | Not stated | ||
| 99 | Not applicable | ||
| 999 | Not applicable | ||
Taking an existing classification with customised codes and descriptors, we can migrate to the harmonised standard with common codes and descriptors through a mapping exercise based on the standard reference classification.
| Concept name | Household Relationship |
| Variable name | HOUSEREL_CSO |
| Format type | Character code |
| Guideline Version | 1.0 |
| Guideline Release date | 22 November 2024 |
| Valid to | 22 November 2027 |
| Owner | Central Statistics Office (CSO) Classification Standardisation Team |
| Audience | Policy makers, system developers and producers or users of statistics |
| Contact | classifications@cso.ie |
This data standard will be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure it remains current and aligned with any changes in regulations or best practices. The validation period for this standard is three years.
We are always interested in hearing from users so that we can develop our work.