Dot Plot Chart

The dot plot chart is a visually appealing alternative to the bar chart for single or multiple categories of data.

Create Dot Plot Chart Learn more

Dot Plot Chart example: A calculation of the number of books US women in any given age group can expect to finish before shuffling off the mortal coil

Dot Plot Chart example: Africa is lagging behind in shipments of industrial robots

Dot Plot Chart example: THE BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY RACE

Dot Plot Chart example: Volkswagen after the "Emissions Scandal"

Dot Plot Chart example: With a Little Help From Our Friends

What is a dot plot chart?

A dot plot is a type of graph in which dots are used to mark the coordinates of categories and their respective values.

Like a bar graph, a dot plot chart has one category axis and one value axis. One of the axes displays the elements/groups of your comparison, the other shows the range of values of your variable. Dots of subsets are assigned with different colors, making them easily distinguishable. Dot plots are used to visualize the distribution of data points in time series or to compare a data set (with one or more categories) over a single variable, e.g., the revenues and profits from different product lines.

Best uses for the dot plot chart

Data sets with multiple variables
Continuous, quantitative and univariate data
Highlighting outliers
Currency comparisons
Movie ratings
Sports visualizations
In fact, dot plot charts are extremely versatile, and will work for almost any topic you could think of!

How to make a dot plot chart with Vizzlo?

Make a dot plot online and export it to your presentations and reports. Check out the examples to get inspired, and follow these easy steps:

On the “DATA” tab of the sidebar, click on the button “CATEGORIES” to name your groups and define their colors
Use Vizzlo’s spreadsheet to enter your data with ease. Click on the wheel icons to match the number formatting with your source, then import or copy and paste your data
Explore the customization options of the “APPEARANCE” tab to refine the look of your chart

Dot plot chart: pro tips

Dot plots enable a clean and easy-to-read visualization of your data
They can be a helpful alternative to a cluttered bar chart (as readers don’t need to compare the length of bars, but only the position of the dot along the value axis)
For a dot plot chart, the “start-at-zero” rule for the value axis is not a must