IPUMS Weights

One of the most common questions IPUMS users ask us is “which weight should I use for my analysis?” The real answer is “it depends.” Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule.

There is a lot of variability in the number of weights across IPUMS US Microdata collections. In some cases, there aren’t too many options. For example, in modern IPUMS USA data there are two weights - HHWT and PERWT - to choose from and which one you use depends on whether you’re doing a household-level analysis or a person-level analysis. In other cases, there are many more weights to choose from and recommending a weight requires additional information about what variables and datasets researchers are using to answer their questions.

A very useful, but understated feature of IPUMS is the “weights” tab in variable descriptions for IPUMS NHIS, IPUMS MEPS, and IPUMS ATUS (and IPUMS CPS is coming soon!). The “weights” tab communicates the recommended weight for each dataset (i.e., year in the NHIS case).

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IPUMS is certified by Core Trust Seal based on the Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements. Learn more about the certification at coretrustseal.org.