Looking for veterans statistics joined with household data in PUMS - Help appreciated!

Hi Julie,

In PUMS, there's a population file and a housing units file. Housing units refer to the actual structure of the house/dwelling, which is why all the variables in the housing units file are all about the building itself (how many rooms, year built, questions about plumbing, etc.). Household information would actually be in the population file (so use person weights), with the variable "relp" or "hht". (see PUMS Data Dictionary here: www.census.gov/.../documentation.html). Relp = relationship, hht = household/family type.

Using the housing unit serialno, and the relp variable, you can get at household characteristics (sounds like you're interested in subsetting to those for whom vps is not equal to bb, and povpip is between 0 and 200). FYI, the "reference person" in the relp variable is just the person who filled out the survey.

Housing unit weights should only be used if you want to produce estimates for characteristics of the actual structure/building/dwelling unit. If you're producing estimates of veterans or veteran households, sounds like you should use person weights.

Hope this helps!
-Diana

thanks. I'm looking for the number of people in the household (or housing unit?). Wouldn't that be in the housing unit file? (NP (Number of person records following this housing record) If so, shouldn't I be summing the housing unit weight?
Also, if I want to know if this household (with veterans) has children, that would be a field like HUPAC(HH presence and age of children) or FPARC (Family presence and age of related children)? If so, would I be adding up the unduplicated housing weights?

Thanks again!

Sounds like you are using the right variables for what you want. In general, I try to use the housing unit weights for variables I'm estimating that are explicitly listed in the housing unit variable list, and use the person weight for doing estimates using variables in the person variable list. If NP is from the housing unit file, then it sounds like you're doing the right thing.

Side note: total "households" should be the same as total occupied housing units. There are often more housing units than households due to vacancies (housing units that are for sale/rent, seasonal/vacation homes, etc.)

Good luck with your project!

Sounds like you are using the right variables for what you want. In general, I try to use the housing unit weights for variables I'm estimating that are explicitly listed in the housing unit variable list, and use the person weight for doing estimates using variables in the person variable list. If NP is from the housing unit file, then it sounds like you're doing the right thing.

Side note: total "households" should be the same as total occupied housing units. There are often more housing units than households due to vacancies (housing units that are for sale/rent, seasonal/vacation homes, etc.)

Good luck with your project!