"The Death Eaters know Ron's with you now, they're bound to target the family -- don't apologize. It was always a matter of time, Dad's been saying so for months. We're the biggest blood traitor family there is."

—Bill Weasley to Harry Potter in 1998.

The Weasleys, unlike many other pure-blood families, willingly associate with Muggles, Muggle-borns, and halfbloods and do not consider themselves superior to others because of their blood status. Thus, elitist pure-blood families such as the Malfoys and the Blacks consider them "Blood Traitors" and treat them with disdain; Cedrella Black was even disowned by her family for marrying Septimus Weasley. Despite being "one of the biggest blood traitor" families, they seemed rather proud of it. The Weasleys' views led to their support to the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army during the Second Wizarding World. During the height of the latter conflict, the Weasleys were placed under surveillance by the Voldemort-controlled Ministry of Magic because they had been in close contact with Harry, and eventually had to go into hiding. The Weasleys took part in the Battle at Hogwarts. During the battle Fred was killed, deeply upsetting the rest of the family and his death was enough to make his mother commit murder to save her daughter from the same fate.

The Weasleys tended to have large numbers of children; an unusual trait for Wizarding families, according to Draco Malfoy. The most recent generations of Weasleys have been considered poor by wizarding standard; their vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank only contained a small pile of sickles and a single Galleon as of 1992.

This likely changed with the great commercial success of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and the successful careers of various family members. By the twenty-first century, many Weasleys and their relatives worked for the Ministry of magic, including Arthur, Percy, Ron, and his brother-in-law Harry as Aurors, and Hermione Granger Weasley high up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

For several generations, only boys were born into the family, until the birth of Ginevra Molly "Ginny" Weasley. This trend ended with the grandchildren of Arthur and Molly, who include more girls than boys.