I don’t see an option to add family level weights to my IPUMS MEPS data. I’m looking for a variable similar to MEPS FAMWT23F, which is a MEPS family definition weight. Is this available in IPUMS and if not, can it be constructed?
IPUMS MEPS has started work on releasing family level weights, but they are not currently available online. I will share your interest with the IPUMS MEPS team as they review priorities for data releases in 2026.
In the meantime, you can obtain these weights from the 2023 full year consolidated data file on the MEPS AHRQ website and merge the data with an IPUMS MEPS harmonized data extract. Our user guide on merging these datasets notes that from 2018-onwards the IPUMS MEPS identifier MEPSID can be directly matched to DUPERSID in the AHRQ file for linking between person-level records.