Abstract Background Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTHR) is a world-class city group in China. However, haze severity of BTHR ranked in the top in China, 2014. As haze has certain impact on people's physical and psychological health, government has taken various measures to actively manage it in recent years. We try to answer the question: From public perception, whether haze control in BTHR has achieved a little success? Methods According to region and gender, we select four groups as respondents: BTHR and non-BTHR men, BTHR and non-BTHR women. We investigate their perception towards haze related issues. After collecting 400 anonymous questionnaires, we use clustering by fast search and find of density peaks (CFSFDP) algorithm to divide the investigated population into different clusters that represent different perception situations. Then, we test whether the frequency of each group divided into four clusters was consistent with the overall distribution frequency by fitting test. Results Questionnaires are automatically divided into four clusters by CFSFDP. The results of test (p > 0.1) show that the four groups are consistent (no significant difference) with overall clustering. Overall average score for “public perception to haze control” is 2.974 (full-score is 5.000), belonging to middle and upper level. Conclusions The cluster results show that there is no significant difference in the perception of haze control effect among four groups. Therefore, for the public in BTHR, there is no significant difference in their recognition of haze control compared with that in other regions, and the overall scores are all at the middle and upper levels. From public perception, effect of haze control in BTHR is in line with that in other regions. Key messages Using clustering algorithm and statistical test to identify the difference of public perception of haze control. From the perspective of public perception, haze control in BTHR has achieved initial results.