HHWT in the 5-year and 1-year ACS

USA
1

Hi,

This might be a stupid question, but I couldn’t figure it out after reading through the documentation.

When I compare the same person in the 5-year 2015-2019 ACS and in the 1-year 2019 ACS, I find different household weights. In particular, I divide the variable hhwt by 5 in the 1-year 2019 ACS and compare it with the variable hhwt in the 5-year ACS, and while they are highly correlated, they are not identical. Why is that?

Kind regards,
Lorenz

2

Hi Lorenz,

This is explained in the PUMS Accuracy of the Data report which discusses the weighting procedure for the 5-year file. The report states that the “5-year PUMS initial weight is equal to the product of the ACS 1-year final weight for the record and the PUMS subsampling factor divided by five.” You can refer to the report for more details on weighting in the ACS