Use PUMS data for PUMAS belonging only in one county

Galateia over 10 years ago

Hello! I try to use PUMS 5yr 2008-2012 data and I face a strange fact that when I sum the weights (variable PWGTP in the dataset) for the PUMAS that belong to a specific County, I do not take as a result the known total population in this county (compared to the population from ACS 2008-2012 estimates)...
Could anyone advise me if I use the given weights properly? The PUMS data are for PUMAS in one whole state and I try to extract only the PUMAS in the county that I need. Is it possible or there is problem because the PUMS data are defined at a state level?

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Doug Hillmer over 10 years ago

I'm chiming in a bit late to this thread on Galatia's question. However, I want to make one point which I haven't seen stated explicitly so far: You should never expect estimates based on PUMS data to match the published estimates for the same time period even if the PUMAs being summed up do match the county (or city) boundaries exactly. This is because the PUMS is a subsample of the selected sample used as a basis for the full sample estimates. The details on PUMS weighting are in www.census.gov/.../2008_2012AccuracyPUMS.pdf. There are a few instances in which the PUMS estimate for a characteristic in a PUMA should match the estimate based on the full sample for the same time period, but, based on my reading of this document, total population is not one of those characteristics.

Doug
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Doug Hillmer over 10 years ago

I'm chiming in a bit late to this thread on Galatia's question. However, I want to make one point which I haven't seen stated explicitly so far: You should never expect estimates based on PUMS data to match the published estimates for the same time period even if the PUMAs being summed up do match the county (or city) boundaries exactly. This is because the PUMS is a subsample of the selected sample used as a basis for the full sample estimates. The details on PUMS weighting are in www.census.gov/.../2008_2012AccuracyPUMS.pdf. There are a few instances in which the PUMS estimate for a characteristic in a PUMA should match the estimate based on the full sample for the same time period, but, based on my reading of this document, total population is not one of those characteristics.

Doug
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