Statistics: Graphic Displays Used in Statistics

Graphic Displays Used in Statistics

Pie charts, bar charts, and histograms are graphic displays of numerical data—simple collections of numbers made more understandable by use of visuals.

As an example, consider the yearly expenditures of a college undergraduate. After collecting her data (expense records) for the past year, she finds the expenditures shown in Table 1 .

TABLE 1

Yearly Expenses of a College Undergraduate

*Item*	*Amount*
Tuition fees	$5,000
Room and board	9,000
Books and lab	2,000
Clothes/cleaning	1,000
Transportation	2,000
Insurance and miscellaneous	1,000

These figures, although presented in categories, do not allow for easy analysis. The reader must expend extra effort in order to compare amounts spent or relate individual proportions to the total. For ease of analysis, these data can be presented pictorially.