Hello, I have been facing this issue recently while doing my project. I carefully selected my data from the years 1976-2023. The variable wtfinl shows that it is available from 1976-2023 on ipums website, however, when I download the data and open it on Stata, the data for wtfinl only (this variable only the data for the other variables are fine) appears from 2021 and not before that. I checked 5 times and tried downloading a new set of data but it is still the same the data does not appear before 2021 on Stata. I waited for the data to unzip/expand before opening it but I am still facing this issue. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!!!
Extract#7 (this is the data set I have been talking about)
I took a look at your extract 7 in IPUMS CPS and I see that most of the samples in the extract are Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) samples. The variable WTFINL is the person-level weight for basic monthly survey (BMS) data. In the availability tab of the variable, you will see that it is not available for ASEC samples. ASECWT is the person-level weight for individual-level ASEC data.
I noticed you have selected both ASEC and BMS samples from 2021 and 2022. We generally do not recommend using both ASEC and BMS data from the same year. Because the ASEC includes all individuals in the March BMS from a given year as well as oversample individuals from different months of the CPS, including both the March BMS and the ASEC as part of a panel essentially results in two records from the same month for all individuals in both the BMS and the ASEC.
I hope this is helpful. Please follow up with any additional questions.