Bar Chart vs Histogram

Understanding the differences between bar charts and histograms is beneficial because you may need to compare various elements. It is crucial to make the right choice depending on your data. Acquiring this knowledge is vital when you have categorized or continuous data that you wish to display graphically. As bar charts vs. histograms gain popularity, you should know the primary and most conspicuous difference: the presence of spaces between the bars in a bar chart, whereas a histogram has adjacent bars without separation.

These two types of charts are used to ease data analysis, enhance information communication effectively and simplify ideas and complicated statistics. They also come in handy when you must make presentations comprehensible and compelling and add interest to statistical essay reports. The information below contains details about histogram vs. bar chart to make the right selection and display information appropriately.

Part 1: What is a Bar Chart?
Part 2: What is a Histogram?
Part 3: Key Differences Between Bar Chart and Histogram
Part 4: Commons between Bar Charts and Histograms
Part 5: How to Create a Bar Chart?
Part 6: How to Create a Histogram?
Part 7: Draw Bar Charts and Histograms with EdrawMax
Part 8: Conclusion

Part 1: What is a Bar Chart?

Abar chart comprises multiple bar graphs that represent comparisons between data categories. The grouped data is displayed in parallel rectangular bars with varying lengths but equal width. Each rectangular block is representative of specific data, and its length is dependent on values held. These separate entities do not touch each other.

Bar charts are useful in showing positive and negative values and can be either vertical or horizontal; vertical displays time series data, whereas horizontal conveys data that varies over space. Consequently, it has two axes, one representing data values (Y-axis) and the other showing categories (X-axis).

For example, the bar chart below shows the number of speakers speaking specific languages; the languages are categories, and their bars have spaces in-between because they are discrete variables. Therefore, there is a comparison among which languages have the most speakers. English appears to have the highest number of speakers, whereas Spanish has the lowest.

Part 2: What is a Histogram?

Ahistogram is a type of bar chart that displays the frequency distribution of continuous data. It is useful in representing statistical information, whereby the different heights of the bars depict observed frequencies. These adjacent bars are attached because the number of observations lies in-between the value range, known as bin or class. The vertical Y-axis represents data values, whereas the horizontal X-axis represents the number of ranges.

For instance, the histogram below indicates the progress of gross domestic product (GDP) of a certain country from 1965 to 1985 onwards. Note that the years are continuous in intervals of five and are connected because they are dependent on each other. From the data displayed, this nation has produced GDP continuously but in varying values. Between 1975 and 1980, the nation produced the highest GDP percentage, which reduced to the least percentage in the next five years between 1980 and 1985.