Marital Status and Sexuality
In terms of marital status, 54.2% of rural women are married (N=907) compared to
35.4% of urban women (N=1257).
Table 1: Marital status of rural and urban women.
Married Civil Divorced Widowed Live with Single
partnership partner
Rural 54.2% 1.5% 10.9% 2.9% 16.9% 13.6%
women 907 25 183 48 282 227
Urban 35.4% 1.7% 10.1% 1.7% 22.9% 28%
women 1257 62 360 61 814 995

Differences are evident in the percentage of women who live with their partner and
those who are single. This suggests that there is more diversity in marital status of urban
respondents.
In terms of sexuality, 92.1% of rural women describe themselves as heterosexual,
compared to 86.5% of urban women. 3.5% of rural women describe themselves as
lesbian, 2% as bisexual, and 2.4% stated that they did not want to answer. Of urban
women, 5.6% describe themselves as lesbian, 5.4% as bisexual and 2.5% stated they did
not want to answer.
Religion and Ethnicity
Table 2: Religious affiliation of respondents
Religion Rural % Urban %
Christian 56.3 40.7
No religion 37.9 50
Other religion 4.1 5.5
Buddhist 0.8 1.3
Muslim 0.4 1.3
Jewish 0.2 0.6
Hindu 0.2 0.4
Sikh 0.2 0.2
Over half of rural women describe themselves as Christian compared to 40% of women
from urban areas. Half of urban women and only 37.9% of rural women describe
themselves as having no religion.
In relation to ethnicity, 97.7% of rural women, and 92.1% of urban women describe
themselves as ethnic white.
McCarry & Williamson, 2009 10
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