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Are the area clusters for one country the same across years? [message #28732]

Thu, 29 February 2024 20:57

andrew49@stanford.edu is currently offline

andrew49@stanford.edu
Messages: 4
Registered: February 2024

Member

I understand that area clusters aren't identified for privacy reasons, but I wanted to double check that they are still uniform across years in DHS surveys (looking at Malawi specifically.)

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Re: Are the area clusters for one country the same across years? [message #28771 is a reply to message #28732]

Wed, 06 March 2024 16:17

Janet-DHS
Messages: 938
Registered: April 2022

Senior Member

Following is a response from DHS staff member, Tom Pullum:

The methodology for sampling clusters from the sampling frame is consistent across surveys, but successive surveys in the same country have different samples of clusters, households, and respondents. There is no continuity in the actual sample.

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Re: Are the area clusters for one country the same across years? [message #31493 is a reply to message #28732]

Thu, 09 October 2025 04:04

VincentMcCarthy
Messages: 1
Registered: October 2025

Member

You're right that DHS area clusters aren't identified for confidentiality reasons. However, they are generally consistent within each survey year--meaning the same cluster ID refers to the same geographic area across variables within that dataset. That said, cluster IDs are not meant to be comparable across different survey years (e.g., 2010 vs. 2016 Malawi DHS), since the sampling design is independent for each round.

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