Abbreviated as MDCP; referenced by 2 other explainers
Social marital status shows the de facto relationship status of people aged 15 and over on Census night. It looks at who lives with whom in the home, not at what the law records. It sorts people into three groups: Married in a registered marriage, Married in a de facto marriage, and Not married.
The figures come from Census data. The Australian Bureau of Statistics collects them.
ABS does not publish a separate Not stated count for social marital status; non-responses are folded into the published three groups.
A de facto marriage is a household couple who are not in a registered marriage but live together as a couple. Same-sex de facto couples have always counted in this group. They counted even in years before same-sex registered marriage was legal. To see the legal version of marital status, see the Registered marital status page. The two pages tell different stories. They have different totals. Social marital status leaves out people who live alone or who do not live with a partner.
Shared-living set-ups that are not couples fall under Not married here. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship systems share care across many adults and homes. So do many culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) homes. So this page can under-count partnered families in these communities.
The total counts persons aged 15 and over in occupied private dwellings whose household position can be classified. It does not count residents of non-private dwellings such as hospitals, aged-care homes, hostels, and student housing. It also does not count group household residents or overseas visitors.
Place Forecast splits each SA1 figure down to mesh blocks and sums them back to the area you see. The downscaling glossary explains the method and its limits.
The total here will be smaller than the Registered marital status total for the same area. That is by ABS design. Social marital status is only recorded for persons whose household position can be classified. It leaves out residents of non-private dwellings (aged care, hospitals, student housing), group households, and visitors. Registered marital status, by contrast, is recorded for every person aged 15 and over, no matter where they live.
This total is also smaller than the population aged 15 and over you will see on the population pages. It is an unadjusted Census count, not ERP.
Each social-marital-status group at the LGA level matches the ABS figure. This is LGA anchoring.
For service choices about one community, read small-area figures as patterns, not exact counts. Check them with community organisations before drawing strong claims.