Statistics from A to Z -- Confusing Concepts Clarified Blog - STATISTICS FROM A TO Z-- CONFUSING CONCEPTS CLARIFIED

Statistics Tip: What's the difference between a Bar Chart and a Histogram?

5/21/2020

Both Bar Charts and Histograms use the height of bars (rectangles of the same width) to visually depict data. So, they look similar.

But, they

differ in whether the bars are separated or placed together (contiguous)
depict different types of data, and
used for different purposes

1. Separated or contiguous

Bar Charts: separated

Histograms: contiguous

2. Types of data

Bar Charts: Counts or Percentages of Nominal (also known as "Categorical") data.
Histograms: Counts or Percentages or Probabilities of the number of data points within a Range

3. How Used

Bar Charts are used to display the relative Sizes (which named item has the highest (or lowest) Count
Histograms are used to display the Shape of the Distribution of the data. The data in the illustration above is roughly Normally Distributed.

New and Recent Videos

5/20/2020

I just uploaded a new video: Alpha and Beta Errors.

And previously, I had uploaded a video on Statistical Errors -- Types, Uses, and Interrelationships.

See the Videos page on this site for a list of my videos previously uploaded.