Linkage Method Explorer
Single, complete, average and Ward linkage on the same points — four dendrograms, four different stories.
- hierarchical clustering
- linkage
- dendrogram
- Ward
Ward linkage (K=3)
Single linkage (K=3)
Complete linkage (K=3)
Mean silhouette width by linkage
Orange = weak structure, green = strong structure thresholds at 0.25 / 0.50.
Cluster sizes
| Method | Sizes | Min | Max | Max/Min ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward | 20 / 47 / 73 | 20.000 | 73.000 | 3.6 |
| Single | 133 / 2 / 5 | 2.000 | 133.000 | 66.5 |
| Complete | 8 / 36 / 96 | 8.000 | 96.000 | 12.0 |
Linkage choice is a modeling assumption
Ward favors compact, balanced clusters by minimizing within-cluster variance at each merge. Single linkage chains through nearest neighbors and can produce one large cluster plus outliers. Complete and average sit between these extremes. Each method finds the structure it is designed to find, whether or not that structure exists in the data.