This paper describes the sample design used in the Brazilian 2013 National Health Survey. The target population is composed by people resident in permanent private households throughout the country; the survey was household-based with stratified sampling and three clustering stages; census tracts form the primary sampling units, households are the units of second stage and adults (aged 18 years or older) define the third-stage units; the sample size considered the desired level of precision for the estimates of some indicators at different levels of disaggregation and different population groups; the final weighting was a product of inverse selection probabilities at each stage of the sampling plan, including non-response correction procedures and adjustment calibrations for the known population totals. Since this is a complex sample, appropriate procedures must be used during data processing.
Population Surveys; Cluster Sampling; Sample Size
