Over the last thirty years the GHS has collected details on current marital status. Periodically questions have been extended to include cohabitation reflecting the way society has changed. As a result the GHS is a key source of information on these topics.

• In 1979 questions on marital history for both men and women were introduced for the first time. In the same year, questions were introduced for women aged 18 to 49 relating to pre-marital cohabitation before the current or most recent marriage.
• In 1986 questions on pre-marital cohabitation were extended to include both men and women aged 16 to 59 and every marriage past and present.
• In 1998, a single question was added to ascertain the number of past cohabitations which did not end in marriage.

• In 2000 new questions were included on the length of past cohabitations which did not end in marriage. These included the dates of the start and end of cohabitations and what people perceived to be the end of each cohabitation (the end of the relationship, the end of sharing accommodation or both).

Information relating to marital status is collected in two stages. Initially, at household level, the marital status of all adults aged 16 or over is collected from the respondent who answers the household questionnaire (usually the household reference person or their partner). Later each household member aged 16 to 59 is asked detailed questions about their marriage and cohabitation history. Where lack of privacy may affect reporting, interviewers offer respondents a self-completion questionnaire. In 2001, 3% of respondents chose this option (unweighted data).