Hello I downloaded Income & Poverty data w PERWT and HHWT.Can you please tell me How can I apply PERWT and HHWT?
In general, sampling weights help account for the fact that the data collected by the US Census are not exactly a perfect random draw from the entire US population. Instead the sample is stratified to ensure that a sufficient number of people with specific characteristics are included in the sample. Said differently, different households and individuals have a different probability of being selected by the US Census. The sampling weights correct for this fact when calculating representative statistics. If you are calculating an individual level statistic (e.g. the share of people in the US who are male or female) you should use the person level sampling weight, PERWT. If you are calculating a household level statistic (e.g. households with household income above some threshold) you should use the household-level sampling weight, HHWT. More information about sampling weights is available here.
Now, specifically how to apply the sampling weights will depend on which program you are using to perform your calculations. For example here is a nice introduction to applying sampling weights in Stata. I’d suggest searching specifically within your program’s help files or online for documentation on how to apply sampling weights.