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Learn about the common types of graphs and charts (such as line, bar, pie, histogram, scatter plot, and Venn diagram) and their applications in various fields. See examples and pictures of each type of graph and chart with explanations and tips.
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- Choose from These Types of Graphs to Create
Line Graphs
Line charts, or line graphs, are powerful visual tools that illustrate trends in data over a period of time or a particular correlation. For example, one axis of the graph might represent a variable value, while the other axis often displays a timeline. Each value is plotted on the chart, then the points are connected to display a trend over the compared time span. Multiple trends can be compared by plotting lines of various colors. For example, the interest of digital marketing over time can...
Bar Graphs
The simplest and and most straightforward way to compare various categories is the classic bar graph. The universally-recognized graph features a series of bars of varying lengths. One axis of a bar graph features the categories being compared, while the other axis represents the value of each. The length of each bar is proportionate to the numerical value or percentage that it represents. For example, $4 could be represented by a rectangular bar four units long, while $5 would equate to a fi...
Pie Charts
Pie charts are the simplest and most efficient visual tool for comparing parts of a whole. For example, a pie chart can quickly and effectively compare various budget allocations, population segments or market-research question responses. Marketing content designers frequently rely on pie charts to compare the size of market segments. For example, a simple pie graph can clearly illustrate how the most popular mobile-phone manufacturers compare based on the sizes of their user-bases. Audiences...
Stock Charts
One of the most vital of all financial graphs, stock charts help investors track the markets to determine profits and loss, as well as make buying and selling decisions. While a variety of graphs are used to represent market changes, the most common is likely the basic line graph turned histogram. The lines simply tracks changes in a particular stock’s or overall market’s value over a period of time. Multiple stocks can be tracked and compared at the same time by transforming the line graph i...
Flow Charts
Oftentimes in business – as well as other industries – a process must be diagrammed. A flow chart allows a process to be sequenced step-by-step, from beginning to end, for the purpose of analyzing, designing, documenting or managing it. These flow charts can even feature multiple beginnings and ends, with countless pathways and journeys in between. While a simple flow chart can certainly document a basic process from A to B to C, the diagrams are more frequently used to illustrate more comple...
Gantt Charts
Gantt charts are special types of bar graphs used to diagram projects and schedules. The use of colored bars of varying lengths reflect not only a project’s start and end dates, but also important events, tasks, milestones and their timeframes. Modern Gantt charts can also illustrate activities’ dependency relationships. If Team 3’s completion of task C, for example, is dependent upon the prior completion of task B by Team 2, the chart can not only reflect that relationship, but the scheduled...
Scatter Plots
Also known as a scattergram, the graph consists of two axes, each representing a set of data. For example, one axis might represent the numbers of miles driven by a vehicle, while the second axis displays the total gallons of gas used. For each vehicle sampled, its miles-per-gallon average is represented by a dot plotted onto the graph. Once multiple dots are plotted, trends can be spotted and samples can be compared, depending on how many colors are featured in the chart.
Trellis Plots
Sometimes a statistician will need to compare more data sets than can be represented by a single graph. What if, for example, a graph needs to compare not only miles driven and gallons used, but also the number of gears and cylinders contained in each vehicle sample? A trellis plot, also called a lattice graph or plot, can display and compare all of those variables. While the above example uses a series of scatter charts, trellis plots commonly feature series of bar or line graphs, as well.
Function Plots
Mathematicians, engineers and statisticians often need to determine the value of an equation by graphing its result. The graph of a function is the set of all points whose coordinates satisfy the equation. Therefore, the function of an equation with variables of xand y would be drawn on a graph with an x and yaxis. Likewise, an equation that also included a variable of zwould need to be drawn on a three-dimensional graph with a third axis. Function graphs of common shapes are visually associa...
Timelines
Possibly the most self-explanatory of data visualizations, a timeline tracks data over a time period. Significant dates and events are highlighted at the point at which they appear on a chronological scale. Timelines can be used alone or in conjunction with other visualizations. This History of Vincent Van Gogh timeline infographic is a great example of how you can create a timeline chartright in Visme.
Tree Diagrams
A form of hierarchical diagram, a genealogical tree illustrates the structure of a family. It can either begin with an ancestor, then diagram his or her descendants, their siblings, marriages and children, and so on. A pedigree chart, on the other hand, begins with an individual and charts their ancestry, from parents to grandparents, and continues up.
Sunburst Charts
A type of multi-level pie chart, a sunburst chart is used to illustrate hierarchical data using concentric circles. Each ring of the “sunburst” represents a level in the hierarchy, with the root node represented by the center circle, and the hierarchy moving outward. While a sunburst chart can be used to illustrate a familiar or company hierarchy, it can also break data down by time periods, creating a historical hierarchy. Various branches of an organization can be represented by designated...
Stacked Bar Graphs
When studying groups of people, it’s common to compare multiple variables at once. After all, it’s enormously more useful to examine racial backgrounds, ages and gender in addition to total population. A stacked bar graph combines elements of the traditional bar graph and the pie graph to communicate totals, trends and proportions in a single illustration. Rather than simply illustrating changes in global population over time with a traditional column bar graph, a stacked bar graph can also r...
Trellis Bar Graphs
When presenting data with three variables, a designer might try and create a three-dimensional bar graph, but adding an additional axis can sometimes appear cluttered and unclear, especially in printed form. Instead, additional variables can be presented in a trellis – or lattice – format. By combining a series of bar graphs in a modular design, additional sets of data can be easily compared. For example, a single bar graph could illustrate the political breakdown of Poland’s national electio...
Stacked Area Charts
Stacked area charts are ideal for comparing values that would normally require multiple line graphs. Each line represents a different category, and the area below each line is generally shaded a designated color so each data set can be easily compared. For example, an area chart with one axis that represents a numeric value, and another axis that serves as a timeline, data for various categories over time can be tracked and compared with a single graphic.
Scattergrams
Scattergrams, also known as scatter plots, are graphs that show the relationship between two or more variables. The plots use mathematical coordinates to represent two variables of a data set. Data is displayed in a scattergram as a collection of points, each representing the value variables plotted on a horizontal and vertical axes. If points are color-coded, an additional variable can be represented in a single chart. By plotting certain data sets, scientists can discover trends of which th...
Trellis Line Graphs
Trellis graphs allow scientists to examine complex, multi-variable data sets, comparing a greater deal of information at once. While a single line graph can illustrate monthly UFO sightings in Tennessee over an 18-year period, a trellis line graph will display the same data for all 50 states in a single graphic. A trellis line graph is based on the same principle as its simpler counterpart, plotting trends in a dataset consisting of two variables – numbers of UFO sightings and dates – through...
Pareto Charts
Sometimes a basic graph doesn’t display enough information to draw the necessary conclusion. A Pareto chart combines a bar graph with a line graph to illustrate not only categories’ individual values, but also the cumulative total of the entire set. Pareto charts are designed to highlight the most important of a set of factors. In a Pareto chart that tracks the type and frequency of food defects, the bars illustrate each type of defects’ total occurrences – as reported on one of the charts’ a...
Multi-Line Graphs
Just as medical symptoms are rarely isolated, neither is the analysis of biometric data. After all, rarely does one statistic paint the entire medical picture. Line graphs can reflect multiple data sets with lines of varying patterns or color. For example, a multi-line graph can illustrate changes in life expectancies of not just the population in general, but for each gender and multiple racial backgrounds.
Stacked Bar Graphs
Stacked bar graphs aren’t useful only in illustrating parts of of a whole. They can also be used to display additional variables. While a basic bar graph could represent what portion of a population is classified as overweight over a designated time period, a stacked bar graph can also track how much of the total is obese.
Flow Charts
Following the proper process is probably more important in medicine than in any other field. After all, if the surgeon forgets a step, you might very well bleed to death while you sleep. Flow charts are frequently used by hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities to ensure proper procedures are uniformly followed.
Contour Plots
Contour plots allow for the analysis of three variables in a two-dimensional format. Instead of plotting data along two main axes, the graph also presents a third value that is based on shading or color. Just as a topographical map plots longitude, latitude and elevation in a two-dimensional design, a contour graph illustrates values of x, yand z. With a contour graph, for example, a climatologist can not only plot ocean’s salinity on different dates, but its salinity at various depths on tho...
Heat Maps
A type of contour graph, a heat map specifically charts varying temperatures at different geographical points. While the graph’s two axes are a map’s latitude and longitude, the third variable – temperature – is represented by a spectrum of color. While most commonly used to illustrate weather, heat maps also can represent web traffic, financial indicators and almost any other three-dimensional data.
Scatter-Line Combo
By combining a line graph with a scatter plot, meteorologists and other statisticians can illustrate the relationship between two data sets. For example, the high and low temperatures of each day in a month can be displayed in a scatter plot, then a line graph can be added to plot the historic average high and low temperatures over the same period. The resulting combination graph clearly displays how the temperature range each day compares to the historic average, and it even indicates how th...
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- Line Graph. The line graph is the most popular type of graph with many business applications because they show an overall trend clearly and concisely.
- Bar Chart. At some point or another, you’ve interacted with a bar chart before. Bar charts are very popular data visualization types as they allow you to easily scan them for valuable insights.
- Column Chart. If you want to make side-by-side comparisons of different values, the column chart is your answer. What is a column chart? A column chart is a type of bar chart that uses vertical bars to show a comparison between categories.
- Pie Chart. Pie charts are attractive data visualization types. At a high-level, they’re easy to read and used for representing relative sizes. What is a pie chart?
- Area graph. An area graph is like a line chart as it also shows changes over time. One difference with these types of graphs is that area graphs can represent volume which is typically filled with color.
- Scatter plot. A scatter plot or a scatter chart helps show the relationship between items based on two different variables and data sets. Dots (or plot data) are plotted in an x-y coordinate system.
- Pie chart. Pie charts highlight data and statistics in pie-slice format. A pie chart represents numbers in percentages, and the total sum of all pies should equal 100 percent.
- Pictograph. Despite having ‘graph’ in the name, a pictograph doesn’t fall into types of graphs. Instead, a pictograph or a pictogram is a type of chart that uses pictures or icons to represent data.
- Line charts. A line chart connects distinct data points through straight lines. Its best use case is to illuminate trends, patterns, and variable changes.
- Bar charts. A bar chart visually represents data using rectangular bars or columns. Here, the length of each bar corresponds proportionally to its value.
- Scatter plots. Scatter plots are types of visualization that show a collection of data points ‘scattered’ around the graph. The data points can be evenly or unevenly distributed.
- Pie charts. A common but limited type of visualization is the pie chart. It is a circular, statistical graphic that divides data into slices. Each slice represents a percentage or proportion of the whole.
Jul 31, 2023 · Written by. Indeed Editorial Team. Updated July 31, 2023. Graphs and charts can organize and present complex data making it easier for people to understand and are commonly used for business purposes. Knowing the difference between various types of graphs and charts can help you choose the best one for your project.
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May 22, 2024 · Different types of graphs and charts can help you: Motivate your team to take action. Impress stakeholders with goal progress. Show your audience what you value as a business. Data visualization builds trust and can organize diverse teams around new initiatives.
