How to identify cohabiting partners in the ACS?

I’m trying to look at cohabiting partners in the ACS. Is it possible? How to do it?

It is possible to identify cohabiting relationships that include the head of household. You can identify such relationships by utilizing the detailed version of the RELATE variable. A person with a RELATED value of “1114” is the unmarried partner of the head of household, while a person with a RELATED value of “0101” is the head of household. Unfortunately, there is no way to confidently identify cohabiting relationships that do not include the head of household.

Note that you will need to click the “Detailed codes” button on the Codes page in order to see the labels for the detailed version of RELATE.

Hope this helps.

1 Like