Working with weighted data means you need to go through additional processes. It is good practice to check how the weights are affecting the data by comparing weighted and unweighted distributions. Develop the habit of routinely checking the percentage distribution and the mean and standard deviation. This will give you a sense of where the main corrections are being applied and whether they are different in different countries. See the worked example in the citizens spreadsheet.

It is also good practice to check your bases to make sure you have accounted for all the cases, to alert you to whether you have weights on or off. Checking bases is a really good discipline to establish to check that your analysis is on the correct population. For example, on a whole sample table is the total number of cases the same or close to the original sample? How many cases have been processed. If you are using the population weight then the sample size will be much larger than the number of people interviewed unless the weights have been scaled back. It is useful to keep on a post-it note or somewhere near your computer the numbers you would expect to have in the main categories for weighted and unweighted - e.g. how many women and men, how many in each of the main age-groups used in analysis, how many are in full-time work etc.