The CLUSTER statement specifies variables that identify clusters in a clustered sample design. The combinations of categories of CLUSTER variables define the clusters in the sample. If there is a STRATA statement, clusters are nested within strata.

If your sample design has clustering at multiple stages, you should identify only the first-stage clusters, or primary sampling units (PSUs), in the CLUSTER statement.

If you provide replicate weights for BRR or jackknife variance estimation with the REPWEIGHTS statement, you do not need to specify a CLUSTER statement.

The CLUSTER variables are one or more variables in the DATA= input data set. These variables can be either character or numeric. The formatted values of the CLUSTER variables determine the CLUSTER variable levels. Thus, you can use formats to group values into levels. See the FORMAT procedure in the Base SAS Procedures Guide and the FORMAT statement and SAS formats in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary for more information.

By default, clusters are determined from the entire formatted values of the CLUSTER variables. Note that this represents a slight change from previous releases in the way in which clusters are determined. Prior to SAS 9, clusters were determined by using no more than the first 16 characters of the formatted values. If you want to revert to this previous behavior, you can use the TRUNCATE option in the PROC SURVEYREG statement.

You can use multiple CLUSTER statements to specify cluster variables. The procedure uses variables from all CLUSTER statements to create clusters.