Chapter 9

Cluster Sampling

It is one of the basic assumptions in any sampling procedure that the population can be divided into a finite
number of distinct and identifiable units, called sampling units. The smallest units into which the
population can be divided are called elements of the population. The groups of such elements are called
clusters.

In many practical situations and many types of populations, a list of elements is not available and so the
use of an element as a sampling unit is not feasible. The method of cluster sampling or area sampling can
be used in such situations.

In cluster sampling
- divide the whole population into clusters according to some well defined rule.
- Treat the clusters as sampling units.
- Choose a sample of clusters according to some procedure.
- Carry out a complete enumeration of the selected clusters, i.e., collect information on all the
sampling units available in selected clusters.

Area sampling
In case, the entire area containing the populations is subdivided into smaller area segments and each
element in the population is associated with one and only one such area segment, the procedure is called as
area sampling.

Examples:
In a city, the list of all the individual persons staying in the houses may be difficult to obtain or even
may be not available but a list of all the houses in the city may be available. So every individual
person will be treated as sampling unit and every house will be a cluster.
The list of all the agricultural farms in a village or a district may not be easily available but the list
of village or districts are generally available. In this case, every farm in sampling unit and every
village or district is the cluster.

1
Moreover, it is easier, faster, cheaper and convenient to collect information on clusters rather than on
sampling units.

In both the examples, draw a sample of clusters from houses/villages and then collect the observations on
all the sampling units available in the selected clusters.

Conditions under which the cluster sampling is used:

Cluster sampling is preferred when
(i) No reliable listing of elements is available and it is expensive to prepare it.
(ii) Even if the list of elements is available, the location or identification of the units may be
difficult.
(iii) A necessary condition for the validity of this procedure is that every unit of the population
under study must correspond to one and only one unit of the cluster so that the total number of
sampling units in the frame may cover all the units of the population under study without any
omission or duplication. When this condition is not satisfied, bias is introduced.

Open segment and closed segment:

It is not necessary that all the elements associated with an area segment need be located physically within
its boundaries. For example, in the study of farms, the different fields of the same farm need not lie within
the same area segment. Such a segment is called an open segment.

In a closed segment, the sum of the characteristic under study, i.e., area, livestock etc. for all the elements
associated with the segment will account for all the area, livestock etc. within the segment.

Construction of clusters:
The clusters are constructed such that the sampling units are heterogeneous within the clusters and
homogeneous among the clusters. The reason for this will become clear later. This is opposite to the
construction of the strata in the stratified sampling.

There are two options to construct the clusters equal size and unequal size. We discuss the estimation of
population means and its variance in both the cases.

2
Case of equal clusters
Suppose the population is divided into N clusters and each cluster is of size n .
Select a sample of n clusters from N clusters by the method of SRS, generally WOR.
So
total population size = NM
total sample size = nM .

Let
yij : Value of the characteristic under study for the value of j th element ( j 1, 2,..., M ) in the i th cluster

(i 1, 2,..., N ).

1 M
yi
M
y
j 1
ij mean per element of i th cluster .

Population (NM units)

Cluster Cluster Cluster

M units M units M units Population
N clusters

N Clusters

Cluster Cluster Cluster

M units M units M units Sample
n clusters

n Clusters

3
Estimation of population mean:
First select n clusters from N clusters by SRSWOR.
Based on n clusters, find the mean of each cluster separately based on all the units in every cluster. So we
have the cluster means as y1 , y2 ,..., yn . Consider the mean of all such cluster means as an estimator of
population mean as
1 n
ycl yi .
n i 1

Bias:
1 n
E ( ycl ) E ( yi )
n i 1
1 n
Y
n i 1
(since SRS is used)

Y.

Thus ycl is an unbiased estimator of Y .

Variance:
The variance of ycl can be derived on the same lines as deriving the variance of sample mean in

SRSWOR. The only difference is that in SRSWOR, the sampling units are y1 , y2 ,..., yn whereas in case

of ycl , the sampling units are y1 , y2 ,..., yn .

N n 2 N n 2
Note that is case of SRSWOR, Var ( y ) Nn S and Var ( y ) Nn s ,

Var ( ycl ) E ( ycl Y ) 2

N n 2
Sb
Nn
1 N
where Sb2 ( yi Y )2 which is the mean sum of square between the cluster means in the
N 1 i 1
population.
Estimate of variance:
Using again the philosophy of estimate of variance in case of SRSWOR, we can find

( y ) N n s2
Var cl b
Nn
1 n
where sb2
n 1 i 1
( yi ycl ) 2 is the mean sum of squares between cluster means in the sample .

4
Comparison with SRS :
If an equivalent sample of nM units were to be selected from the population of NM units by SRSWOR,
the variance of the mean per element would be
NM nM S 2
Var ( ynM ) .
NM nM
2
f S
.
n M
N -n 1 N M
where f
N
and S 2
NM 1 i 1 j 1
( yij Y ) 2 .

N n 2
Also Var ( ycl ) Sb
Nn
f
Sb2 .
n
Consider
N M
( NM 1) S 2 ( yij Y ) 2
i 1 j 1

N M 2

( yij yi ) ( yi Y )
i 1 j 1

N M N M
( yij yi ) 2 ( yi Y ) 2
i 1 j 1 i 1 j 1

N ( M 1) S M ( N 1) Sb2
2
w

where
1 N
S w2
N
S
i 1
i
2
is the mean sum of squares within clusters in the population

1 M
Si2 ( yij yi )2 is the mean sum of squares for the ith cluster.
M 1 j 1

The efficiency of cluster sampling over SRSWOR is

Var ( ynM )
E
Var ( ycl )
S2

MSb2
1 N ( M 1) S w2
( N 1) .
( NM 1) M Sb 2

5
Thus the relative efficiency increases when S w2 is large and Sb2 is small. So cluster sampling will be
efficient if clusters are so formed that the variation the between cluster means is as small as possible while
variation within the clusters is as large as possible.

Efficiency in terms of intra class correlation

The intra class correlation between the elements within a cluster is given by
E ( yij Y )( yik Y ) 1
; 1
E ( yij Y ) 2
M 1
1 N M M

MN ( M 1) i 1 j 1 k ( j ) 1
( yij Y )( yik Y )

1 N M
( yij Y )2
MN i 1 j 1
1 N M M

MN ( M 1) i 1 j 1 k ( j )1
( yij Y )( yik Y )

MN 1 2
S
MN
N M M

i 1 j 1 k ( j ) 1
( yij Y )( yik Y )
.
( MN 1)( M 1) S 2
Consider
2
N 1 N M
( yi Y ) 2

i 1 M
( yij Y )
i 1 j 1
2
N 1 M
1 M M
2 ( yij Y ) 22
( yij Y )( yik Y )
i 1 M j 1 M j 1 k ( j ) 1
N M M N N M
( yij Y )( yik Y ) M 2 ( yi Y ) 2 ( yij Y ) 2
i 1 j 1 k ( j ) 1 i 1 i 1 j 1

or
( MN 1)( M 1) S 2 M 2 ( N 1) Sb2 ( NM 1) S 2
( MN 1)
or Sb2 1 ( M 1) S 2 .
M ( N 1)
2

6
The variance of ycl now becomes

N n 2
Var ( ycl ) Sb
N
N n MN 1 S 2
1 ( M 1) .
Nn N 1 M 2

MN 1 N n
For large N , 1, N 1 N , 1 and so
MN N
1 S2
Var ( ycl ) 1 ( M 1) .
nM
The variance of sample mean under SRSWOR for large N is
S2
Var ( ynM ) .
nM
The relative efficiency for large N is now given by
Var ( ynM )
E
Var ( ycl )
S2
nM
S2
1 ( M 1)
nM
1 1
; 1.
1 ( M 1) M 1
If M 1 then E 1, i.e., SRS and cluster sampling are equally efficient. Each cluster will consist
of one unit, i.e., SRS.
If M 1, then cluster sampling is more efficient when
E 1
or ( M 1) 0
or 0.
If 0, then E 1 , i.e., there is no error which means that the units in each cluster are arranged
randomly. So sample is heterogeneous.
In practice, is usually positive and decreases as M increases but the rate of decrease in
is much lower in comparison to the rate of increase in M . The situation that 0 is possible
when the nearby units are grouped together to form cluster and which are completely enumerated.
There are situations when 0.
7
Estimation of relative efficiency:
The relative efficiency of cluster sampling relative to an equivalent SRSWOR is obtained as
S2
E .
MSb2

An estimator of E can be obtained by substituting the estimates of S 2 and Sb2 .

1 n
Since ycl yi is the mean of n means yi from a population of N means yi , i 1, 2,..., N which
n i 1
are drawn by SRSWOR, so from the theory of SRSWOR,
1 n
E ( sb2 ) E ( yi yc ) 2
n i 1
1 N

N 1 i 1
( yi Y ) 2

Sb2 .

Thus sb2 is an unbiased estimator of Sb2 .

1 n 2
Since sw2
n i 1
Si is the mean of n mean sum of squares Si2 drawn from the population of N mean

sums of squares Si2 , i 1, 2,..., N , so it follows from the theory of SRSWOR that

1 n 1 n 1 n 1 N

E ( sw2 ) E Si2 E ( Si2 ) S i
2

n i 1 n i 1 n i 1 N i 1
1 N
Si2
N i 1
S w2 .

Thus sw2 is an unbiased estimator of S w2 .

Consider
1 N M
S2
MN 1 i 1 j 1
( yij Y ) 2

N M 2

or ( MN 1) S ( yij yi ) ( yi Y )
2

i 1 j 1
N M
( yij yi ) 2 ( yi Y ) 2
i 1 j 1
N
( M 1) Si2 M ( N 1) Sb2
i 1

N ( M 1) S w2 M ( N 1) Sb2 .

8
An unbiased estimator of S 2 can be obtained as
1
S 2 N ( M 1) sw2 M ( N 1) sb2 .
MN 1
So

( y ) N n s2
Var cl b
Nn
2
( y ) N n S
Var nM
Nn M
1 n
where sb2 ( yi ycl )2 .
n 1 i 1

S2
An estimate of efficiency E is
MSb2

N ( M 1) sw2 M ( N 1) sb2
E .
M ( NM 1) sb2

If N is large so that M ( N 1) MN and MN 1 MN , then

1 M 1 S w2
E
M M MSb2
and its estimate is
1 M 1 sw2
E .
M M Msb2

Estimation of a proportion in case of equal cluster

Now, we consider the problem of estimation of the proportion of units in the population having a specified
attribute on the basis of a sample of clusters. Let this proportion be P .

Suppose that a sample of n clusters is drawn from N clusters by SRSWOR. Defining yij 1 if the j th

unit in the i th cluster belongs to the specified category (i.e. possessing the given attribute) and yij 0

otherwise, we find that

9
 yi Pi ,
1 N
Y Pi P,
N i 1
MPQ
Si2 i i
,
( M 1)
N
M PQ
i i
S w2 i 1
,
N ( M 1)
NMPQ
S2 ,
NM 1)
1 N
Sb2 ( Pi P)2 ,
N 1 i 1
1 N 2

N 1 i 1
Pi NP 2

1 N N

Pi (1 Pi ) Pi NP 2
( N 1) i 1 i 1
1 N


( N 1)
NPQ
i 1
i i,
PQ

where Pi is the proportion of elements in the i th cluster, belonging to the specified category and

Qi 1 Pi , i 1, 2,..., N and Q 1 P. Then, using the result that ycl is an unbiased estimator of Y , we
find that
1 n
Pcl Pi
n i 1
is an unbiased estimator of P and
N


( N n)
NPQ PQ
i i
.
Var ( Pcl ) i 1

Nn ( N 1)

This variance of Pcl can be expressed as

N n PQ
Var ( Pcl ) [1 ( M 1) ],
N 1 nM

where the value of can be obtained from where

M ( N 1) Sb2 NS w2

( MN 1)
by substituting Sb2 , S w2 and S 2 in , we obtain

10
 N

M 1 PQ i i
1 i 1
.
( M 1) N PQ

The variance of Pcl can be estimated unbiasedly by

( P ) N n s 2
Var cl b
nN
N n 1 n
( Pi Pcl )2
nN (n 1) i 1
N n n


Nn(n 1)
nP Q
cl cl
i 1
PQ
i i

where Q cl I Pcl . The efficiency of cluster sampling relative to SRSWOR is given by

M ( N 1) 1
E
( MN 1) 1 ( M 1)
( N 1) NPQ
.
NM 1 N

NPQ PQ i i
i 1
1
If N is large, then E .
M
An estimator of the total number of elements belonging to a specified category is obtained by multiplying
Pcl by NM , i.e. by NMPcl . The expressions of variance and its estimator are obtained by multiplying the

corresponding expressions for Pcl by N 2 M 2 .

Case of unequal clusters:

In practice, the equal size of clusters are available only when planned. For example, in a screw
manufacturing company, the packets of screws can be prepared such that every packet contains same
number of screws. In real applications, it is hard to get clusters of equal size. For example, the villages
with equal areas are difficult to find, the districts with same number of persons are difficult to find, the
number of members in a household may not be same in each household in a given area.

11
Let there be N clusters and M i be the size of i th cluster, let
N
M0 Mi
i 1

1 N
M
N
M
i 1
i

1 Mi
yi
Mi
y
j 1
ij : mean of i th cluster

1 N Mi
Y
M0
y
i 1 j 1
ij

N
Mi
yi
i 1 M0
1 N
Mi

N
M i 1
yi
0

Suppose that n clusters are selected with SRSWOR and all the elements in these selected clusters are
surveyed. Assume that M i s (i 1, 2,..., N ) are known.

Population

Cluster Cluster Cluster

M1 M2 MN Population
units units units N clusters

N Clusters

Cluster Cluster Cluster

M1 M2 Mn Sample
units units units
n clusters

n Clusters

Based on this scheme, several estimators can be obtained to estimate the population mean. We consider
four type of such estimators.
12
1. Mean of cluster means:
Consider the simple arithmetic mean of the cluster means as
1 n
yc yi
n i 1
1 N
E yc y i
N i 1
N
Mi
Y (where Y yi ).
i 1 M0

The bias of yc is

Bias yc E yc Y
1 N N
Mi

N

i 1
yi yi
i 1 M 0

1 N M N


M 0 i 1
M i yi 0
N
y
i 1
i

N N
1
N

M i yi
i 1

M 0 i 1
M i yi i 1

N


1 N
(M i M )( yi Y )
M 0 i 1
N 1
Smy
M0
Bias yc 0 if M i and yi are uncorrelated .

The mean squared error is

MSE yc Var yc Bias yc

2

2
N n 2 N 1 2
Sb S my
Nn M 0
where
1 N
Sb2 ( yi Y )2
N 1 i 1
1 N
S my (M i M )( yi Y ).
N 1 i 1
13
An estimate of Var yc is

y N n s2
Var c b
Nn
1 n
y c yc .
2
where sb2
n 1 i 1

2. Weighted mean of cluster means

Consider the arithmetic mean based on cluster total as
1 n
yc* M i yi
nM i 1
1 n 1
E ( yc* ) E ( yi M i )
n i 1 M
n 1 N
M i yi
n M 0 i 1
1 N Mi

M0
y
i 1 j 1
ij

Y.

Thus yc* is an unbiased estimator of Y . The variance of yc* and its estimate are given by

1 n M
Var ( yc* ) Var i yi
n i 1 M
N n *2
Sb
Nn
( y * ) N n s*2
Var c b
Nn
where
2
1 N Mi
S
*2
b
N 1 i 1 M
yi Y

2
1 n Mi
sb*2
n 1 i 1 M
yi yc*

E ( sb*2 ) Sb*2 .

Note that the expressions of variance of yc* and its estimate can be derived using directly the theory of
SRSWOR as follows:

14
 Mi 1 n
Let zi yi , then yc* zi z .
M n i 1
Since SRSWOR is followed, so
N n 1 n
Var ( yc* ) Var ( z )
Nn N 1 i 1
( zi Y ) 2
2
N n 1 N Mi

Nn N 1 i 1 M
yi Y

N n *2
Sb .
Nn
Since
1 n
E ( sb*2 ) E
n 1 i 1
( zi z ) 2

1 n Mi *
2

E y yc
n 1 i 1 M
i

2
1 N Mi

N 1 i 1 M
yi Y

Sb*2
So an unbiased estimator of variance can be easily derived.

3. Estimator based on ratio method of estimation

Consider the weighted mean of the cluster means as
n

M y i i
y **
c
i 1
n

M
i 1
i

It is easy to see that this estimator is a biased estimator of population mean. Before deriving its bias and
mean squared error, we note that this estimator can be derived using the philosophy of ratio method of
estimation. To see this, consider the study variable U i and auxiliary variable Vi as

15
 M i yi
Ui
M
Mi
Vi i 1, 2,..., N
M
N

1 N 1 M i
V Vi i 1
1
N i 1 N M
1 n
u ui
n i 1
1 n
v vi .
n i 1
The ratio estimator based on U and V is

YR V
u
v
n

u i
i 1
n

v
i 1
i

n
M i yi
M
i 1n
Mi
i 1 M
n

M y i i
i 1
n
.
Mi
i 1

Since the ratio estimator is biased, so yc** is also a biased estimator. The approximate bias and mean

squared errors of yc** can be derived directly by using the bias and MSE of ratio estimator. So using the
results from the ratio method of estimation, the bias up to second order of approximation is given as
follows
N n Sv2 Suv
Bias ( y ) **
U
Nn V 2 UV
c

N n 2 Suv
Sv U
Nn U
1 N
1 N
where U
N
U i
i 1
M i yi
NM i 1

16
 1 N
Sv2 (Vi V )2
N 1 i 1
2
1 N Mi
1
N 1 i 1 M
1 N
Suv (U i U )(Vi V )
N 1 i 1
1 N M i yi 1 N
Mi

N 1 i 1 M

NM
M y M
i 1
i i 1

U 1 N
Ruv
V
U
NM
M y .
i 1
i i

The MSE of yc** up to second order of approximation can be obtained as follows:

N n 2
MSE ( yc** )
Nn
Su R 2 Sv2 2 RSuv
2
1 N M i yi 1 N

where S 2

N 1 i 1 M
u
NM

i 1
M i yi

Alternatively,
2
N n 1 N
MSE ( yc** ) U i RuvVi
Nn N 1 i 1
2
N n 1 N M i yi 1 N
M

Nn N 1 i 1 M

NM

i 1
M i yi i
M
2
N

N n 1 N Mi
2 M i yi
yi
Nn N 1 i 1 M
i 1

NM
.

An estimator of MSE can be obtained as

2
( y ** ) N n 1 Mi
n
MSE c
Nn n 1 i 1 M
( yi yc ) .
** 2

The estimator yc** is biased but consistent.

17
4. Estimator based on unbiased ratio type estimation
1 n 1 Mi
Since yc
n i 1
yi (where yi
Mi
y ) is a biased estimator of population mean and
i 1
ij

N 1
Bias ( yc ) Smy
M0
N 1
Smy
NM
Since SRSWOR is used, so
1 n 1 n
smy (M i m)( yi yc ),
n 1 i 1
m Mi
n i 1
is an unbiased estimator of
1 N
S my ( M i M )( yi Y ),
N 1 i 1
i.e., E ( smy ) S my .

So it follow that
N 1
E ( yc ) Y E ( smy )
NM
N 1
or E yc smy Y .
NM
So
N 1
yc** yc smy
NM
is an unbiased estimator of the population mean Y .

This estimator is based on unbiased ratio type estimator. This can be obtained by replacing the study
Mi Mi
variable (earlier yi ) by yi and auxiliary variable (earlier xi ) by . The exact variance of this
M M
estimate is complicated and does not reduces to a simple form. The approximate variance upto first order
of approximation is
2
1 M i 1
Var y
N N

c
**

n( N 1) i 1 M
yi Y )
NM
yi ( M i M ) .

i 1

18
A consistent estimate of this variance is
2
n

n
1 M i
i yi yc )
y ** 1 M n
Var c
n(n 1) i 1 M
yi M i i 1
nM i 1 n
.


** **
The variance of ycc will be smaller than that of yc (based on the ratio method of estimation) provided
M i yi M 1 N
1 N
the regression coefficient of
M
on i is nearer to
M N
yi than to
i 1 M0
M y .
i 1
i i

Comparison between SRS and cluster sampling:

n
In case of unequal clusters, M
i 1
i is a random variable such that

n
E M i nM .
i 1
Now if a sample of size nM is drawn from a population of size NM , then the variance of corresponding
sample mean based on SRSWOR is
NM nM S 2
Var ( ySRS )
NM nM
N n S 2
.
Nn M
This variance can be compared with any of the four proposed estimators.
For example, in case of
1 n
yc*
nM
M y
i 1
i i

N n *2
Var ( yc* ) Sb
Nn
2
N n 1 N Mi

Nn N 1 i 1 M
yi Y .

The relative efficiency of yc** relative to SRS based sample mean

Var ( ySRS )
E
Var ( yc* )
S2
.
MSb*2

For Var ( yc* ) Var ( ySRS ), the variance between the clusters ( Sb*2 ) should be less. So the clusters should be
formed in such a way that the variation between them is as small as possible.

19
Sampling with replacement and unequal probabilities (PPSWR)
In many practical situations, the cluster total for the study variable is likely to be positively correlated with
the number of units in the cluster. In this situation, it is advantageous to select the clusters with probability
proportional to the number of units in the cluster instead of with equal probability, or to stratify the clusters
according to their sizes and then to draw a SRSWOR of clusters from each of the stratum. We consider
here the case where clusters are selected with probability proportional to the number of units in the cluster
and with replacement.

Suppose that n clusters are selected with ppswr, the size being the number of units in the cluster. Here
Pi is the probability of selection assigned to the i th cluster which is given by

Mi Mi
Pi , i 1, 2,..., N .
M 0 NM
Consider the following estimator of the population mean:
1 n
Yc yi .
n i 1
Then this estimator can be expressed as
1 N
Yc i yi
n i 1

where i denotes the number of times the i th cluster occurs in the sample. The random variables

1 , 2 ,..., N follow a multinomial probability distribution with

E ( i ) nPi , Var ( i ) nPi (1 Pi )
Cov( i , j ) nPP
i j , i j.

Hence,
1 N
E (Yc ) E ( i ) yi
n i 1
1 N
nPi yi
n i 1
N
M
i yi
i 1 NM
N Mi

y
i 1 j 1
ij

Y.
NM

Thus Yc is an unbiased estimator of Y .

20
We now derive the variance of Yc .
1 N
From Yc i yi ,
n i 1
1 N N
Var (Yc ) 2 Var ( i ) yi2 Cov( i , j ) yi y j
n i 1 i j
1 N N

n 2 i 1
Pi (1 Pi ) y i
2
PPi j yi y j
i j
1 N
2
N
2 Pi yi2 Pi yi
n i 1 i j

1 N
2 Pi yi Y
2

n i 1
1 N

nNM
M (y Y ) .
i 1
i i
2

An unbiased estimator of the variance of Yc is

(Y ) 1 n
Var ( yi Yc ) 2
n(n 1) i 1
c

which can be seen to satisfy the unbiasedness property as follows:

Consider
1 n

E ( yi Yc ) 2
n(n 1) i 1
1 n
E ( yi2 nYc ) 2
n(n 1) i 1
1 n 2 2
E i yi nVar (Yc ) nY
n(n 1) i 1
where E ( i ) nPi , Var ( i ) nPi (1 Pi ), Cov ( i , j ) nPP
i j ,i j

1 n
1 N 1 N
E ( yi Yc ) 2 n P y 2
n Pi ( yi Y ) 2 nY 2
n(n 1) i 1 n(n 1) i 1
i i i
n i 1
1 N
1 N


(n 1) i 1
Pi ( yi2 Y 2) Pi ( yi Y ) 2
n i 1
1 N 1 N

(n 1) i 1
Pi ( yi Y ) 2

n i 1
Pi ( yi Y ) 2

1 N

(n 1) i 1
Pi ( yi Y ) 2

Var (Y ).
c

21