Context : Significant progress has been made in recent years to understand the formation and evolution of our Galaxy , but we still lack a complete understanding of the Galaxy and its structure .

Aims : Using an almost complete sample of Galactic open star clusters within 1.8 kpc , we aim to understand the general properties of the open cluster system in the Galaxy and probe the Galactic structure .

Methods : We first extracted 1241 open clusters within 1.8 kpc of the Sun from the Milky Way Star Clusters ( MWSC ) catalog .
Considering it an almost complete sample of clusters within this distance , we performed a comprehensive statistical analysis of various cluster parameters such as spatial position , age , size , mass , and extinction .

Results : We find an average cluster scale height of z _ { h } = 60 \pm 2 pc for clusters younger than 700 Myr , which increases to 64 \pm 2 pc when we include all the clusters .
The z _ { h } is found to be strongly dependent on R _ { GC } and age , and on an average , z _ { h } is more than twice as large as in the outer region than in the inner region of the solar circle , except for the youngest population of clusters .
The solar offset is found to be 6.2 \pm 1.1 pc above the formal Galactic plane .
We derive a local mass density of \rho _ { 0 } = 0.090 \pm 0.005 M _ { \odot } / { pc } ^ { 3 } and estimate a negligibly small amount of dark matter in the solar neighborhood .
The reddening in the direction of clusters suggests a strong correlation with their vertical distance from the Galactic plane with a respective slope of dE ( B - V ) / dz = 0.40 \pm 0.04 and 0.42 \pm 0.05 mag/kpc below and above the GP .
We observe a linear mass-radius and mass-age relations in the open clusters and derive the slopes of dR / d ( logM ) ~ { } = ~ { } 2.08 \pm 0.10 and d ( logM ) / d ( logT ) ~ { } = ~ { } -0.36 \pm 0.05 , respectively .

Conclusions : The dependence of the spatial distribution of clusters on their age points to a complex interplay between cluster formation and survivability within the Galaxy .
The geometrical characteristics of a significant number of clusters enabled us to understand large-scale spatial properties of the cluster systems within the Galaxy .
The structural and physical parameters of clusters allowed us to check mutual correlations between the individual parameters .