P-05. Marital status
1 = Married civil/religious
2 = Married traditional/customary
3 = Polygamous marriage
4 = Living together like married partners
5 = Never married
6 = Widower/widow
7 = Separated
8 = Divorced
If categories 5-8 go to (P-06).
Rules for marital status in relation to polygamy:
A. Women cannot have multiple husbands, and women can never have marital status 3 (polygamous).
B. In a polygamous marriage, the man declares his marital status as 3 (polygamous): each of his wives declares her marital status as either 1 (civil/religious marriage) or 2 (traditional/customary marriage). Note that wives in polygamous marriages cannot have marital status 4 (living together).
C. In a non-polygamous marriage, each partner can have marital status of 1 (civil/religious marriage) or 2 (traditional/customary marriage) or 4 (living together).
D. If a man has multiple wives, his marital status must be 3 (polygamous).
E. Each of a polygamous man's wives should make her spouse number person point to the man, and the man's spouse person number should point to the first of his wives.
F. It is possible to have a polygamous man with no spouses or with a single spouse in the household.
In the situation where there is a compound ("kraal") consisting of several huts, each of which has its own separate cooking and eating areas, the people in each of these huts would be enumerated as separate households.
For example, a man lives in his compound with his 3 wives and his son 's family (total of 4 huts). There would be 4 households here to enumerate, and 4 questionnaires filled out. The hut where the husband stayed on census night would have a head (him, marital status 3) and a spouse (the wife from that hut, marital status 1 or 2), and spouse person numbers pointing to each other; each of the other 2 wives' huts would just have a head (the wife, marital status 1 or 2) with spouse person number = 99 (spouse not present in the household), and other occupants (children, etc). The son 's family would also be its own household.
None of these questionnaires should be linked (via barcode on the last page), since they are all separate households. Questionnaires linking /continuation only occurs when a single household has more than 10 people (or 20, or 30, etc.).
When a man lives with his wives in the same household and they share the same cooking/eating facilities, then they would all be enumerated as one household, with one questionnaire. The man would have marital status 3; his spouse person number would point to the first wife. Each wife would have marital status 1 or 2, and her spouse person number would point to the man.
This caters for polygamy while still adhering to the definition of a household, which is not based on financial support.