27. What is [the respondent's relationship to the head of household (male or female)? (basic)
[] 1 Head of household (male or female) DMC automatic sampling message)
[] 2 Partner (spouse, companion, husband/wife)
[] 3 Son/daughter, stepson/stepdaughter
[] 4 Son-in-law/daughter-in-law
[] 5 Grandson/granddaughter
[] 6 Father, mother, father/mother-in-law
[] 7 Brother, sister
[] 8 Other relative
[] 9 Employee in domestic service
[] 10 Other non-relative
Household
(Definition adopted by the Andean Community of Nations (CAN)).
It is a person or group of people, related or not, who occupy all or part of a dwelling; attend to basic needs charged to a common budget and they generally share food.
The following situations should be taken into account:
[p. 53]
Pensioners: are people who pay for the right of a dwelling and food, therefore, are considered members of the household to which they pay for these rights.
Tenants: are people to whom one or more rooms of a dwelling are rented and prepare food or eat separately, therefore they are considered separate households.
Domestic employees who sleep most of the time in the dwelling where they work, are considered members of the household for which they work.
People who reside (sleep) in a dwelling sharing the expenses of rent and services but do not share food are considered a household. For example: a group of students who pay the rent and services among themselves, but each one eats separately.
When there are many groups of people who cook and separately and attend to other basic needs charged to different budgets in a dwelling, each group is considered a household. Example: married children who live with their spouse and children in the house of the parents, but cook separately, are considered a household different than the parents.
Note: The concept of household should not be confused with the concept of Family. The Household is formed by those who live in a dwelling and share at least some meals, whether related or not; while the concept of "family" implies ties of kinship between its members and can constitute, for effects of the Census, "many households" if some of them live in other dwellings or are living in the same unit but cooking separately. This is important, given that in two contiguous dwellings parents can live in one and married children in the other (the interviewer can tend to consider it a single household).
Head of household
It is the habitual resident recognized as such by the rest of the members of the household.
It is, generally the father or mother or the principle economic support of the household. A household always has one and only one head of household and cases in which a spouse exists should still be single.