Respondents were asked what they meant by stopping ‘living together’ – whether it was the end of the relationship, the end of sharing accommodation or both. Those who said it meant the end of the relationship were then asked for the date of the end of sharing accommodation and vice versa. The answer to this question was then compared with the dates already given.

For first completed cohabitations 27% of men and women aged 16 to 59 said the end of ‘living together’ meant the end of the relationship, 20% said it meant the end of sharing accommodation and 49% said both (4% gave other answers which included a small percentage who volunteered the fact that they had stopped sharing accommodation but the relationship had continued).

Table 5.14 shows that the dates did not always support their perception of what defined the end of ‘living together’. For first completed cohabitations 63% of those who said the end of ‘living together’ meant the end of the relationship and 48% of those who said it meant the end of sharing accommodation gave the same dates for both of these events. Where the dates differed, those who said the end of ‘living together’ meant the end of sharing accommodation were more likely to give this as the first date than those who had said it meant the end of the relationship (38% compared with 15%). It would thus appear that there was a closer match between the dates given and people’s perceptions in the case where the end of ‘living together’ meant the end of sharing accommodation.