Identifying same-sex couples in cross-national survey data: A comparison of same-sex couples’ demographic and socio-economic traits in six European countries

There are many challenges associated with studying same-sex couples in survey data, which were not explicitly designed for this purpose. In this chapter, I systematically review demographic and socio-economic characteristics of same-sex couples in two data sources: the European Social Survey (2002-2012) and the Generations and Gender Programme (2002-2010). This comparison is aimed at providing a first check on the quality of these data. While there is much encouraging evidence, a number of country-specific inconsistencies emerge. The chapter concludes by giving relevant recommendations to survey providers.