I notice a large number of 'missing' or 'N/A' values for education (HIGRADE) in the 1950 census. Is this normal?

I notice a large number of ‘missing’ or ‘N/A’ values for education (HIGRADE) in the 1950 census. Is this normal?

Yes, this is normal. The 1950 census designated one “sample-line” person within each household who answered additional questions. The Universe Tab of HIGRADE indicates that this question is only asked of the “sample-line” person in the 1950 sample. So, this is the reason for the higher number of “N/A” observations. Additionally, for this same reason, we have a sample-line specific person-level weight variable (SLWT) for using these variables.

I just want to note that Abacus does not use the correct weights for these variables, creating incorrect estimates. You would Abacus would use slwt for these questions in 1950.

https://usa.abacus.ipums.org/session?session=1~191762~2581~191087!1910878.1910879.19108710.19108711.19108712.19108713.19108714.19108715.19108716.19108717.19108718.19108719.19108720.19108721.19108722~~t~percent