While marking the marital status the legal state will be taken into account. The legally married person who's wife is alive and the marriage is not terminated by the court is marked as married even if he/she is not living with the spouse. The married person should be questioned if he /she is living with the spouse or separated from her/him. In fact living together or separated is a matter of personal decision. The answer marked is not necessarily the same as the family status entered on the 4th page of the Dwelling questionnaire.
The marital status of the persons living in cohabitation (as consensual partners) should be entered also according to the legal state, e.g. if a never married female is in cohabitation with a married male the family status is never married and married, not living with the spouse respectively.