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Graphs Bar Chart

Bar Chart

Visualize amounts with respect to one categorical variable

Bar Chart example: College admission: 
How important are each of these factors?
Bar Chart example: Higher quality and lower prices rise China's retail import market incessantly
Bar Chart example: IIT Bombay catapults itself into the 
illustrious circle of world-class institutions
Bar Chart example: Jobs at estimated high risk of automation
Bar Chart example: Life expectancy Gap
Bar Chart example: Star Wars Global Box Office
What is a bar graph?

A bar chart is a common graphical display when you want to show quantitative values for a set of categories. The bars represent a set of numerical data points. The length of the bars is proportional to the numerical values associated with each category. The bars can be placed either vertically or horizontally. It is best practice to make the bars start at zero. Otherwise, you run the risk that your chart misleads people.

This type of chart is also known as a bar chart, bar plot, or column chart.

A brief history of the bar chart

The first known bar chart was part of Wiliam Playfair’s The Commercial and Political Atlas, from 1796. The author, a Scottish political economist and a pioneer in data visualization and graphic design, compared year-to-year data of different branches of trade.

How to make a bar chart with Vizzlo
  • Enter your data either open the “Spreadsheet” in the menu bar and copy&paste your data into the corresponding fields or upload as XSLX or CSV file
  • change the data of the default entries - just click on any bar and use the input elements in the sidebar
  • Add additional bars by clicking the “plus” buttons on each side of a bar. Alternatively, click on “+ Add bar” in the menu bar
  • Explore additional customization options the sidebar
  • Click on Analysis to add a shade or a projection line
Bar graph pro tips
  • Bar charts should generally include a zero baseline.
  • If the labels to identify the bars take up too much horizontal space, swap the x and y-axis.
  • Always sort your bars if the categorical variable has no natural order.
Bar graph: use case
  • Almost anything!
  • Sales volume of different brands
  • Total number of people living in different cities
  • The difference in life expectancy between countries or regions
Bar chart: key features
  • Take advantage of our advanced Analysis functions to visualize growth, trends, projections and benchmarks
  • Vertical and horizontal views
  • Sorting bars ascending or descending
  • Change bar colors
  • Adjust bar width
  • Customize axes lines and grid lines
  • Adjustable minimum and maximum range for y-axis
  • Analysis lines: growth rates (CAGR), reference lines, trend lines, and benchmarks
  • Show values and change their number format
Resources
Bar Chart: What's new?
Feb 13, 2024

Adding individual growth rates now works properly again.

Jan 4, 2024

You can now seamlessly switch to a grouped bar chart by adding another series.

Aug 3, 2022

Sum/difference arrows now allow calculating CAGR and AAGR values for the whole graph or individual column ranges.

May 16, 2022

You can now set up charts with up to 100 bars.

Apr 25, 2022

Fixes bug that could break charts if a Sum/Difference arrow was added.

Read more in our Changelog.
This vizzard was last updated: 3/18/2024, 11:02:23 AM

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