Average Nearest Neigbor - Influence of sample size?

JakobEder

Hello.

 

I have a simple question about the Average Nearest Neighbor Tool in the Spatial Statistics Toolbox. I understand, that the result is heavily influenced by the size of the study area. This shouldn't be a problem for me, since I am always studying the same city. I want to compare five different samples (incident data) to each other by looking the z- and p-scores.

The problem is, that the biggest sample contains 500 incidents and the smallest one 100 incidents. Hence, my question is: Is the number of incidents also influencing my results? And comparisons in that case are not valid?

 

At least it seems to me as if this is the case - higher number of incidents causes higher clustering...

 

Thanks for your help,

 

Jakob

JakobEder

Maybe I should rephrase: I want to compare different samples within a city. I have the impression, that the sample size influences (distortes) my results, so I am not sure if this comparison of the z-scores is valid. Is it? Meaning - is a higher z-score only caused by the actual degree of clustering or also by the number of incidents included in the analysis?

Thanks.