The Influence of Clustering Population on Estimation Accuracy of Population Totals Vector

Abstract

The estimation accuracy of a population totals vector based on a simple cluster sample is considered. The variance-covariance matrix of estimators depends on the intra-cluster spread of variables under study. The spread depends on the partition of the population into clusters. The variance-covariance matrix is evaluated under several variants of clustering algorithm. This lets us find the clustering algorithm providing the most accurate estimation of population vector totals.