GRAPH CHOICE CHART

FREQUENCY
Histogram
Does your question ask you... MEASUREMENT VALUES

about the variability of a group of

data points? (i.e. the range of the MAKE
Frequency Plot GROUP 1

data, the shape of the distribution, EITHER

GROUP 2

or what the center of the data is)

MEASUREMENT VALUES

Do you want to compare the vari- Box

1. Do all high tides rise to the same height?
Plots

MEASUREMENT VALUES
ability of all data points in each
2. How variable are wind speeds in Denmark?
3. What is the range and distribution of group to decide if any difference
incomes in Sudan? between the groups is meaningful?
FOR EACH
1. Which of the two solar cars consistently GROUP MAKE A
GROUP 1 GROUP 2

goes the farthest?

to compare two or more groups to 2. Is there a meaningful difference in the
decide if the groups are the same heights of fertilized and unfertilized bean
or different? plants? Dot
Plot
MEASUREMENT VALUES

Are you comparing single numbers that summarize a group?

(such as mean, median, or total…)

SUMMARY VALUE
1. Was the total snowfall greater this winter than last winter?
2. Do cats and dogs have the same average body
Bar Graph
temperature?
GROUP A GROUP B
3. How do the median incomes for the US and India compare?

if two numeric factors are 1. Is the fuel efficiency of a car related

Scatter

VARIABLE 1
correlated? to its weight?
N Plot
Does it ask about how 2. Are smoking rates correlated with
median income?
1. Is the temperature inside the house something changes VARIABLE 2

correlated with the temperature outside? 3. Given a fixed volume, how are tem-
through linear TIME? perature and pressure related?
2. How did electricity used by the kitchen

MEASUREMENT
circuit fluctuate during the past week?
1. Is sea level rising?
Line
Y Graph
2. How did my weight change over the
how a total is proportioned into last 3 months? LINEAR TIME

sub-groups? (Or what proportion CATEGORY B %

a sub-group is of a total?) CATEGORY C %

Pie
1. What were Brazil’s most significant exports Chart CATEGORY A %

in 2015?
MAKE
2. What proportion of global electricity
production comes from wind?
EITHER

PERCENTAGE
3. How do Parisians typically commute
Stacked
to work?
Bar Chart
V0.1 updated 3.29.16 The Graph Choice Chart by The Maine Data Literacy Project*, GROUP 1 GROUP 2

based on a work at participatoryscience.org

* Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.