# How do I apply a PERWT weight while calculating the POVERTY variable, given that poverty includes household data?

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/how-do-i-apply-a-perwt-weight-while-calculating-the-poverty-variable-given-that-poverty-includes-household-data/567>\
**Category:** USA\
**Created:** [June 23, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/how-do-i-apply-a-perwt-weight-while-calculating-the-poverty-variable-given-that-poverty-includes-household-data/567 "2014-06-23T23:22:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jmedeiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/65b543/32.png) [@jmedeiros](https://forum.ipums.org/u/jmedeiros)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/how-do-i-apply-a-perwt-weight-while-calculating-the-poverty-variable-given-that-poverty-includes-household-data/567/1 "2014-06-23T23:22:00Z")

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I would like to run basic tabulations with the POVERTY variable by race. I am applying the PERWT weight across all my calculations. Does the fact that poverty includes data specific to households affect the ability to apply the PERWT?

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**Author:** ![grover](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/grover/32/5_2.png) [@grover](https://forum.ipums.org/u/grover)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/how-do-i-apply-a-perwt-weight-while-calculating-the-poverty-variable-given-that-poverty-includes-household-data/567/2 "2014-06-25T15:53:00Z")

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It is appropriate to use the PERWT in this situation, since you are interested in the number of people exhibiting a specific trait. Similarly, even though the variable [STATEFIP](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/STATEFIP#description_section) is a household level variable, in order to find the total number of people living within a state, you would apply PERWT to the variable.

I hope this helps.