Talk:Cluster sampling

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Hmmm. Could the first sentence of this article be a definition of what "cluster sampling" is? It's great once you get into the article, but a clear definition is kinda necessary to orient the reader. --Robert Merkel 06:11 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Maybe you could include a generic definition like you did in stratified sampling, saying that it is a statistical technique and that it is a form of probability sampling.

It is one of those concepts that are hard to define in one sentence, and without any preliminary background. Good luck. - - user:mydogategodshat

I think that this article does not make too clear why cluster sampling is used in practice and that some points are, at best, misleading. The article should probably indicate, that cluster sampling is used as a means of cost saving. It is pointed out, that clusters should be as homogeneous as possible. I would like to see a reference for this, as it is counter-intuitive. Different references point out that "the greater the within-cluster differences, the greater the sample precision" (Henry, Gary T., Practical Sampling, Sage) and that "as the cluster size increases, the homogeneity becomes smaller [...]. This might suggest that larger clusters are better than smaller ones for reducing sampling error, but cost factors must also be considered" (Sudman, Seymour, Applied Sampling, Academic Press).Danhoppe 08:35, 16 June 2006 (UTC)